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1 




Letta and Rastus Down in Arkansas 


BY MRS, LUCY M, CROZIER, 


COPYRIGHTED 

.AT THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, 
WASHINGTON, D. C, 




INTRODUCTORY. 


The writer having spent twelve years of her early 
life with those tyranical people is prepared to give a 
sketch of their lives. While she has given a true story 
of Letta and Rastus, she has put it in mild form. Truly 
only a hint of what they realy are. But it is to be 
hoped that the following pages will be a sufficient hint 
of what they are. And it is to be hoped that the fol- 
lowing pages will be sufficient hint to unsuspecting 
people who may have helpless orphan children in their j 
care to find homes for, not to let fiends get them j 
into their, clutches. j 

The voyage <bf child ^ sad one, and I 

especially soj if lb fdllfe.inta ‘the. J^aM^ of treacherous j 
people. It is often the case that the orphan’s entire ! 
life is blighted f)y‘fke\ ‘treat meifxt if receives in | 

childhood' days. For this' i/ba^on the /nian or woman 
who is so unfortunate as to deem it necessary to seek 
homes for. their children, before placing them in care 
of friends should use great caution in investigating the 
disposition of the parties vith whom they place their 
children. I think I only do my duty when I say to the 
bereaved father or mother, be careful who you let have 
charge of your child, and especially if the child hap- 
pens to be a girl. There was never a truer saying ut- 
tered than ‘There is no place like home,” But it has 


two meanings, one in direct opposition to -the other. 
In the first place where children have good and loving 
parents, or where orphan children are fortunate enough 
to fall into the hands of humane and affectionate guard- 
ians, home is a heaven on earth; but, on the other 
hand, when orphan children are so unfortunate as to 
fall into the hands of fiends and brutes, home is hell 
on earth, and as it was my misfortune to lose my 
mother when but thre(3 years old, and as will be seen 
in these pages, it was my misfortune to fall into the 
hands of fiends and brutes, this little book is published 
^ith the hope that it may be a means of saving some 
parents from placing their loving children in the hands 
of designing brutes. 


Letta and Rastus Down in Arkansas 


CHAPTER I. 


MY FIRST EXPERIENCE AT CHURCH. 

I was born in Pike county, Missouri. My father 
was a farmer and lived four miles from Frankford, on 
a farm that he owned. My mother was a daughter of 
Rev. John M. Johnson, who was a minister of the 
Missionery Baptist church. My mother having been 
raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord was 
a religeous woman who trusted in the strength of the 
Master, and walked in the paths that were marked out 
for her. My earliest recollection of her was when I 
was about two and one-half years old. My mother 
too k me with her to Mount Pleasant church, where 
the Missionery Baptists held their regular services. 
The house was built after the rural ancient style. It 
was a frame structure, weather boarded and, as well as 
I can remember, the dimensions were about 40x50 feet, 
with old fashioned benches and pulpit, with planks set 
up end ways so high that it took a tall preacher to see 
over the top of it, while the audience could only see 
him a little below his chin. Within, the pulpit was 
provided with a small stool upon which the short 
preachers stood, in order to be high enough to see over 
the top. The first I knew I saw a man stick his head 
above the top of the pulpit, which I at that time 
thought was a high box. The preacher began to talk 
very loud and strike his fist on the shelf in front of 
him. I thought he was calling for some one to help 


-- 5 — 


him out. I was scared and called out, “somebody help' 
him out'’. My mother said I must not talk while the 
man was preaching; but I was so anxious to help him 
to get out of the box, and was so frightened that I 
could not stop calling for him to be helped out. Then 
my mother promised me a whipping, as whi]Dping was 
in fashion in those days, Jirnd she made her word good 
when she got home, notwithstanding my oldest brothers 
pleaaings. She thought it was her duty to keep her 
word with me. 

•' Soon thereafter mother was taken sick, and after 
^ix months died. During her sickness she often called 
all of us children to her bedside and rehersed the old 
old story of the cross, and some times sang “I am go- 
ing home to die no more;” then she tried to impress on 
our minds that she was going to leave this world to 
dwell in another where all was joy, peace and love; 
where sickness^ pain and death never come. A few 
hours before she died, she called us to her side and 
told us that she v/as going. She told us to be good 
children, to walk in the light of God, and eventually 
meet her in heaven. 

The death angel came and she passed away. There 
were several ladies there, and they attended the dress- 
ing of her. Though I was only three years old I ob- 
served how tender they were toward her. They dressed 
her in a white shrowd, then closed her sightless eyes, 
clasped her pale and icy hands upon her lifeless 
breast, and laid her down to rest. 

The day following I was playing in the front yard, 
my father called to me and said: “Lucy, come to me.” 
I looked up and saw that he was weeping, and went to 
him. He took me by the hand and led me to the coffin 
in which my mother lay. It seems an age since I saw 
the coffin there. My brothers were standing on the 
opposite side of the coffin, weeping. Then two gentle- 
men came near and placed the lid on the coffin and 


— 6 — 


screwed it down. The coffin was born out in the) 
blinding light of day, the black hearse moved on, the 
coaches drove away, we stood around the grave and 
the solemn prayers were read, then the heavy wet 
earth was shoveled in on our poor mother. No one 
but the orphan know the sadness of the sound of the 
dirt falling upon all that is mortal of a beloved 
mother. 


CHAPTER II. 


OUR VISIT TO mother’s GRAVE. 

Without a loving mother home was a place of sor- 
row. Still our grandmother, on our fathers side, had 
lived with us after the death of grandfather and she 
was as kind to us as she could be, but still we all felt 
the depths of sorrow without a mother, so grand- 
mother took the care of us all in her own hands. 
Grandmother was an English lady by descent, her 
father having been born in England. Grandfather was 
a Scotchman by birth. Father’s people were all edu- 
cated and high minded people, and there was never a 
more affectionate and kind hearted people on earth 
than they were, and grandmother being of a high 
spirited nature did all that was in her power to make 
us comfortable as she could, but as she was then 
seventy years old she could not keeiD as close watch 
over us as we should have had. Mother died in De- 
cember and was buried twelve miles from home, at her 
father’s home. We we deprived of the pleasure of 
visiting our mother’s grave during the winter and 
father promised us that he would take us to grand- 
fathers as early in the Spring as the weather would 
permit to take us out. When Spring came he took us 




down to grandfather's to see our mother’s grave. Next 
day when we were ready to return home, grandfather 
told us to go down to the barn lot and pick out a sheep 
for each one of us, so we went and made our choice, 
and the old colored servant Siah, caught them for us. 
We were all proud of our sheep and nursed and hugged 
and was almost tempted to kiss them as we went home 
in the wagon, sheep and children all went mixed up 
together. While we were on the way home, as the old 
saying is, we began to count the chickens before the 
eggs were hatched. We calculated raising lambs and 
then shearing the fleece, and selling the wool, and 
after a while we would be rich. 

It being spring time father and my three oldest 
brothers went in the field to prepare to make a crop, 
while my two youngest brothers and myself went 
wading in the creek catching fish and frogs and we 
often went into the water until it was up to our chins, 
then we played in the sun shine until our clothes were 
dry, as we knew grandmother would put us in style if 
she learned of us wading in the creek. 

On one occasion when father was away from home 
our oldest brothers decided to go fishing. I wanted to 
go with them but they objected and when they started 
I started too, they ran, I ran too, but they were soon 
out of my sight, but I followed on in the direction that 
they went. I walked on until I grew weary, then I sat 
down on the bank of the creek and was soon in deep 
sleep. I don’t know how long I slept but when I 
awoke it was night and dark and dowdy, not a star to 
be seen, nor a ray of light of any kind. I did not know 
where I was, nor how^ far I was from home, nor which 
way to start to try to find home, but I resolved to try 
to find the way home and I wandered along in the dark 
not knowing where I was going. After walking some 
distance through the darkness I saw a light and I 
started toward it. I had to cross the creek in order to 


— 8 - 


get to the house where the light shown from, and dark 
as it wms I waded the creek. I walked on toward the 
light and finally I heard some one talking. I turned 
and went in the direction of the sound of voices. 
Finaly I reached the place and found some colored 
women milking cows, they asked me whos little girl I 
was. I told them that I belonged to papa and grandma. 
They took me in the house and said, look here Marsa 
Billy what a pretty little girl we have, wonder wheve 
she came from, she says she belongs to her papa and 
grandma. Then the landlady ordered the colored 
women to take me to the dining room and give me my 
supper. Then the landlady came in and asked me how 
I came to be there alone and what my fathers name 
was. I told her that his name was papa but grandma 
called him Isaac. She said ‘‘Oh, you are Isaac Pierce’s 
little girl are you, where is your papa.” I told her he 
had gone to town. Finally her daughter came in and 
we recognized each other, as she had frequently visited 
at our house. She took me upon her lap saying, “Do 
you know me?” “Yes, your name is Fannie Pitt” how did 
you come to be here alone?” I told her I went fishing and 
got tired and went to sleep and when I woke up I was 
lost. “Well,” she said, “You are at Mr. Pitt’s house 
now, and we’ll take you home. ’’Then she called to Ned 
to come and take me home. Ned was an old colored 
servent that Mr. Pitt owned for a number of years. 
Ned lifted me up in his arms and carried me home as it 
was three miles from Mr. Pitts house to my fathers. 
When we arrived home Ned delivered me to my father 
and said, “I brought your little angel home.” Father 
never made any investigation as to why I had strayed 
away from home, but got a switch and put me in 
fashion, as the fashion in those days was to whip 
children for every little mistake that they happened to 
make, which has been the cause of many children leav- 
ing their homes and going astray. 


— 9 — 


Soon thereafter, when all of ns children were 
gathered together in the front yard, father came out 
and took a seat just outside the door, I suppose for the 
purpose of breaking the news to us that we would soon 
have a new mother. However, after he had sat there 
a few moments, he called to us to come to him and we 
went. He drew a picture from his pocket saying, “I 
want to show you a picture of the lady who is to be 
your new mother.” He then told us that he expected 
to marry in a few days, and that the woman was a good 
woman and that we must love and respect her. We 
were delighted with the idea of his getting- us a new 
mother, so the next day he hired a carriage and went 
to Hanible, Mo., where he married Miss Lizebeth Priso. 
Next day he brought her home with him. She was an 
elegant lady in appearance; tall and well built, with 
black hair and eyes. Her dress was made of plaid 
silk with hat to match. Grandmama had prepared a 
reception dinner, and the relatives and neighbors were 
invited. Dinner being over the guests went home. 
.Some time in the afternoon I went to the parlor door, 
hoping to get a peep at my new mother. Father and 
her were sitting side by side. When father saw me, 
he told me to come in and see my mother, and said to 
her ‘‘this is my little girl.” She put her arms around 
me and kissed me said that I was a pretty little girl. 
Hater in the afternoon my father requested my uncle, 
Ben Mour, to take the carriage home, which he con- 
sented to do, and when Uncle got the horses hitched to 
the carriage, my youngest brother and myself planed 
a ride. Unobserved by Uncle we dimed up on back of 
the carriage. When he had driven about fifty yards 
from the house, I jumpt off, but Brother fell, and by 
some means his foot got fastened in the spring and he 
hung with his head down. When he began to yell 
Uncle stopped the horses, got out of the carriage and 
helped him down, and told us w^e both ought to be pun- 
ished, but we failed to be put in style that day, being 


— 10 — 

as all parties were so well pleased with the r„ew mem- 
ber of the family. Things went on very smoothly the* 
balance of the day, and all retired with happy hearts. 
Next morning Grandmother arose early and prepared 
breakfast. When she called the family for breakfast,, 
we found that Father and his beloved bride had not 
awoke, but Grandmother was a kind woman, and did 
not wish to disturbe her new daughter-in-law, and 
waited breakfast for them. 

After some time she and Father entered the dining 
room and took their seats at the table. She then be- 
gan to show signs of displeasure. She looked at us 
children with a frown, and when Father spoke to her 
she answered him very grufly. Next meal she did not 
make her appearance, and when Grandmother asked 
her why she did not come to dinner, she said, ‘T feel 
myself too good to eat with a gang of country jakes,’’ 
this cut grandmother’s pride, and she said, ‘‘we don’t 
care to have you eat with us, I only asked you for man- 
ners sake,” then grandmother left her alone and she 
became more and more remorseful, and in less than a 
week her lip almost lay on her chin. There being two 
dwelling houses in the yard, she remained in the one 
separate from the family, she made her own coffee and 
baked her own cakes, and ate by herself. 

When father went near her he always tried to car- 
ress her, but she always spurned him, and acted as if 
she felt disgusted. Father often attempted to place 
his arm around her, but she never failed to wrench her- 
self from him, saying, “let me alone.” She soon be- 
gan to complain of her sorrowful fate, and to find fault 
with us children, saying that she had made a great 
mistake in marrrying a man with so many children, 
and often told us that she was daily praying that all of 
us might go to hell, and that her prayers were always 
answered. 

One day our little brother Eddie was taken sick 
and she took pleasure in tilling us that was an answer 


— 11 — 


io her prayers, and that he would die, and she would 
continue to pray the Lord to send afflictions on a]l of 
us and that all of us might die and go to hell and then 
we would all be there together. When we would cry, 
she stormed at us, saying, “what are you crying about 
because Eddie will die and go to hell,” then she would 
say, “shut up, you devils you or I will beat every one 
of you to death. ” Eddie soon got well and she was 
very much disapointed. She asked father, one day, to 
take her to Hanible to visit her mother. He consented 
and took her and they took me along too. When we 
arrived at her mothers home, her mother came out to 
the gate to meet us and father helped us out of the 
carriage and stepmother threw her arms around her 
mothers neck and wept bitterly, then we all went into 
the house except father, who went to the barn to put 
up the horses. As soon as we got into the house she 
began to lament her sorrows to her mother by telling 
her how much she regretted having married a man 
that had so many children. She said that she liked me 
very well, but she could not tolerate the boys. Her 
mother tried to console her by telling her to look to 
God for comfort who was ever ready to hear and 
answer her prayers. She spent the most of the winter 
with her mother and came back early in the spring. 
She took quite an interest in raising chickens and 
making garden. She laid claim to every thing on the 
place and tried to turn every thing that she could into 
money for herself, notwithstanding she never brought 
five cents of anything to our home, except her clothes. 
She gave father to understand that she was boss, and 
he was bossed, and all hands had to obey her orders, 
and still she refused to do anything for any of us 
children, or eat at the same table with us. She made 
herself obnoxious with every lady that she come in 
contact with, telling the neighbors that she did not 
want their society, as they were country jakes and 
black republicans, as she called the Union people in 


— 12 — 


the North, and as mother’s people were from that di- 
rection, she made a specialty of trying to humiliate us, 
by telling us that our mother’s people were old black 
republicans and negro lovers, but none of us ever felt 
any shame for that as we had sense enough to know 
that was only a difference of opinion and that it was an 
evil that promped her to talk that way to us; 


CHAPTER III. 


There was never a more charitable woman than my 
father^s mother and whenever any of the neighbors got 
sick, grandmother ‘was notified immediately, as they 
knew she was ever ready to lend a helping hand. It 
happened in the fall of 1864 that there was a great a 
deal of sickness throughout that section of the country, 
and grandmother spent a great deal of her time away 
from home nursing the sick. One afternoon she was 
to go to visit the sick in the neighborhood and while 
she was preparing to go, stepmother was in one of her 
tantrams, and as grandmother knew she was very 
abusive toward us children and was likely to be more 
so in her absence, and knowing that she was a strong 
believer in spirit haunts and ghosts she told her that 
if she did not treat us better than she had, she 
would haunt her from the next world. Grandmother 
only told her that because she knew stepmother would 
be looking for her after she was dead if she happened 
to pass away first, and thought it might have a tend- 
ency to make her more cautious about her behaviour 
toward us children. Grandmother had been away but 
a few days when my three eldest brothers were alarmed 
at hearing her cough, nothing was more distinct to 


‘-IS— 


them than the sound of her coughingj as it was early 
in the mornings and they supposed she had came home 
during the night. They 'inquired of each other to 
know if either one of the other heard her when she 
came in, but none of them knew, they called to herj but 
no answer came back. They * were at a loss to know 
why she did not an.swer. Thqy arose and went to her 
room, but to their surprise found she was not there. 
“Oh, what can this mean, "’they quered of- each other, 
“she must be some where near hear, we heard her 
coughing too distinctly to beOmistaken. ” After ponder- 
ing between themselves they decided to ask step- 
mother to interpret for them. As early in the morn- 
ing as opportunity offerded they went to her and re- 
lated the story to her. 

She quickly responded that our grandmother 
would die within three weeks. “Mark what I say, the 
cough is a token of her death.” She said that tokens 
always followed the blue-bloods and their descendents, 
and as grandmother was of that descent, the token was 
a presentment to warn them of her death. Whether 
there was any reality in her idea or not, it came true. 
About two days later, grandmother came home sick. 
Father summoned a physician, but her affliction was 
beyond his skill. She lingered along two weeks and 
died. We children were out in the yard playing, when 
the nurse came out and broke the sad news to us. It 
was a sad blow to us, as we now felt that we had no 
one to love us. She was buried in the family grave 
yard, by the side of her husband. Her children and 
grandchildren were all present, except her youngest 
son, Jonathan, who had gone to California in the early 
days for the purpose of seeking his fortune in the gold 
Helds. 

When the funeral was over, all went home except 
her two eldest daughters. Aunt Harrait Moore and 
Aunt Melvinie Brown. Night came and we all retired 
with heavy hearts. The earth seemed to us like a 


14 - 


dark vale of sorrow, without grandma. Next morning 
the family arose early, and Aunt Harriet went about 
putting the rooms in order. Grandmother had during 
her illness made a will, dividing her affects between 
her two oldest daughters, as she had already given the 
other children their proportional part. When they be- 
gan to gather the things together, stepmother came to 
the door and said: “Haven’t I forbid your taking any- 
thing away from here? Go back to your room and at- 
tend to your own business.” Said Aunt Harriet: “We 
will take all that mother has given us.” Then a quar- 
rel followed. Melvinia, being of a timid nature, re- 
marked that she would not take anything, if she had 
to quarrel over them, but Aunt Harriet was a woman 
who would stand up for her rights, and said she would 
insist on having her share. Then Melvinia said “well 
sister you may have my share too, as I don’t feel like 
quarreling over it,” and began to weep and went home. 
Then Step-mother said again, “Harriet,! say you shall 
not take a thing. ” “I don’t care what you say,” said 
Harriet. “You must not think you can impose on me 
the way you do on these children. Git out of here and 
attend to your own business, or I will have you arrest- 
ed at once.” Step-mother fled immediately, and Aunt 
Harriet took all with her that she could get in the 
wagon and then came back for the balance. Step- 
mother remained silent for several hours. Then the 
thought came to her that Grandmother had threatened 
to come back from the spirit land and haunt her. She 
became so impressed with the idea, that she became 
afraid to remain at home, and told Father he must take 
her to visit her mother. She teased him daily, and 
told him that she could not sleep at night for fear of 
being haunted by Grandmother’s spirit. He finally 
granted her request. She remained in Hanible with 
mother several weeks. When she returned home, she 
had gotten over her fears to a certain extent, and soon 
fell into her old habit of fault finding and abusing us 


— 15 — 


children. She often informed ns that she dispised 
children, and that the onl^ consolation she had was 
that the devil would get every one of us. Notwith- 
standing that she was a member of Missionary Baptist 
church in full fellowship and standing, she would tell 
us that she was daily praying that we might all go to 
hell; and whenever an opportunity offered itself, she 
would wound our feelings, often getting our mother’s 
picture and holding it up abuse her, saying, ‘‘the 
daughter of an old black republican ought to be in hell, 
all the black republicans ought to be there. 

One day when she was raging furiously, one of 
Aunt Harriet’s boys happened to be passing the house 
and decided to stop and see us children. He rode up 
to the fence and got off his horse and came into the 
house. She saluted him by saying, “I suppose you 
have come to get someting to talk about,” and added 
that his room was better than his company. He re- 
plyed, “I did not come to see you. Madam, I only came 
to see the children, and as for talking about you, I 
don’t have to, as I can always find something better to 
talk about.” “Leave here,” she cried. “Not ’till I 
get a good ready,” he replied, “I met Uncle Ike down 
the road, and he invited me to stop and remain here 
until he returned, and that is what I propose to do,” 
and took a seat very composedly, and remained until 
Father came. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Winter was nearing us and heavy clothes had to 
be made, and we had no Grandmother to sew and patch 


— 16 — 


for us Qow, and, small as we were, we felt the weight 
of our need and dependence. Father had a negro wo- 
man hired, but we were aware of the fact that she 
could not do work like making clothes, and knew that 
Step-mother did not want to do anything for us ‘brats', 
as she called us, but she did manage to cut the clotl'es 
and tke negro woman sewed them together after a 
darkey fashion. Step-mother complained daily of 
having to do so much for us, especially the boys. 

Notwithstanding that she still had some fears of 
grandmother coming back and haunting her, still her 
fears were not strong enough to hold her in check. 
She could not be induced to go into Grandmother's old 
room, but considered herself perfectly safe in any part 
of the house where she would abuse us to her heart’s 
content. Good old Jemima, the colored woman, did all 
in her power to make us comfortable, often telling us 
that it was her wish that God’s blessing might rest up- 
on us, and that when we were done with time and 
timely things we might all be united in the happy land 
of Canaan. Aunt Jemima was a faithful colored serv- 
ant and loved children. One day when Step-mother 
was raging about so many children, Jemima said to her, 
“Why, Misses, I don’t think there can be too many 
children. I would like it if we had them strung all 
around our necks, I would have Santa Claus visit all of 
them on Christmas day. ” It was then late in Decem- 
ber and Christmas was soon on hand, but Step-mother 
objected to Santa Clause coming, saying there were 
too many children. When New Year’s morning came 
we all got up early and Father said, “Lucy, what do 
you suppose Santa Clause brought for a New Year’s 
gift?” “Nothing,” I replied, “ma says there are too 
many children here for him to come.” Then he told 
me to guess, and I guessed and kept guessing until I 
had guessed everything I could think of, except a baby. 
Then I waited and asked if it was a baby, and to my 
surprise he said yes, a little brother. He went and got 


— 17 - 


the baby and showed it to me, and I said to him. ‘‘It 
is pretty and sweet, but I don’t think you should have 
taken it as ma is always scolding about so many chil- 
dren, and especially the boys. He said that it was 
.awful cold the nig*ht before and Santa Clause could not 
take care of it any longer. I told him that I thought 
it would be better not to invite Santa Clause to our 
house any more, as he had took to bringing babies, 
.and we did not need any of them. 

Stepmother made a nurse of my youngest brother, 
Willie, and every time the baby cried or anything 
happened to it, she never failed to whip him whether 
he was to blame or not. He would often say that he 
w^ould be glad when the baby got old enough to take 
care of its self, and that there would never be any more 
accepted in our family. But to his sorrow there was 
another in less than eighteen months, and then there 
was two babies to take care of and double whipping 
to be done. When the oldest one was about twenty 
months old stepmother persuaded father to take her to 
visit her mother, again he complied with her request, 
and took my brother Theodore, and the two babies and 
myself with them. I had to play nurse on that 
occasion. I can not tell how many whippings I got 
during the two and one-half weeks stay there, and I 
know that I did not do anything deserving of a cross 
word. During our stay there the oldest baby took sick 
and died, and stepmother appeared to be deeply 
grieved over the death of her baby, and her mother 
advised her not to talk about the child or allow any 
one else to. While we -were getting ready to start 
home in gathering up our clothes and other things, I 
discovered the little bonnet that the child had worn, I 
picked it up and handed it to her, saying, “here is poor 
little Calvin’s bonnet. ” No sooner than I uttered the 
words she struck me in the face saying, “you know I 
don't allow you to speak of him, you will be the cause 
of me going crazy yet, ” and after that I used great 
care never to call the child’s name in her presence. 


^18- 


CHAPTER V. 


It was in the month of February 1866 when grand- 
father Johnson took sick. My stepmother was whip- 
ing me for accidently breaking a dish when she heard 
a rap at the door. She shoved me out of the back 
door and answered the call. She was confronted by 
Aunt Deala Johnson who asked if she had heard from 
father Johnson. She said she did not know and asked 
her what was the matter. Aunt Deala said that he 
was sick and they sent after Will yesterday and I have 
not been able to hear from him since, and I thought I 
would come and see if I could hear from him through 
you or Ike. ‘T did not know he was sick,” step- 
mother said, ‘‘nor I don’t care if he is, the old black 
republican, and if he is a Baptist preacher he is an old 
hypocrit.” Aunt Deala was a lady of high culture and 
too much refined to dispute with her but said, ‘‘the 
war is over and when the people made peace I made 
peace with them, I wish every body well.” She then 
bid her good afternoon and went home. Next morn- 
ing Uncle Will called and brought the sad news of 
grandfather’s death. Father went to the funeral and 
when he returned he told us that grandfather had made 
his will dividing his property equally between his 
children, and mothers share between us children, 
stepmother became enraged at this and said, “he was 
an old scroundrel for doing so, he should have left it 
to us (meaning her and her children). Now pa,’ she 
said, ‘you shall bring suit and break the will, we need 
that money our selves and we must have it.” Father 
attempted to explain why it could not be done, telling 
her that grandfather had a perfect right to do as he 
pleased with his own property, but she would not 


—19— 

listen to him. She said that she knew it could be done, 
and he could law it out of us children, and if we chil- 
dren dared to speak of our money she would slap us in 
the face. 

On one occasion she overheard Willie building air 
castles and what he intended to do with his money 
when he become a man. Stepmother listened to him 
until she could not bear it any longer. She came in 
and pounced on him and beat him until he was black 
and blue, after which she warned him never to lay 
claim to that money again, telling him that if he did 
she would kill him. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Brother George remained at home until he was 17 
years of age. Stepmother had a dislike for him from 
the first time she saw him, and I am sure that she 
never spoke a civil word to him at any time. Finally 
he decided to leave home. He said that he knew he 
could earn his own living and have more pleasure 
away from home than he had had at home, so he 
gathered up his clothes and said good bye to the chil- 
dren and sti;rted down the road. ‘‘The next time we 
heard from him he was working for Mr. Lapley and 
was doing well. 

George worked faithfully and when the harvest 
was over Mr. Lapley paid for his labor. He then said 
George you are a good and trusty boy, and I would 
like to keep you the balance of the summer. George 
consented and they agreed on the wages and he went 
to work again. He worked three days and fell from 
the wagon and broke his leg. When his stepmother 
heard of it she rejoiced and said, “ah, ha, I prayed 


- 20 - 

for that, and that is not all, I mean to continue to pi^ay 
for something to happen to all, all, all of you nasty lit- 
tle brats and I shall continue to pray until the devil 
gets the last one of you. ” This was in the summer 
and time only had to roll a short time until winter. At 
this time, as bad as she pretended to hate children, to 
the great surprise ofDthe children, old Santa Claus 
made it his business to drop another baby in for me, lit- 
tle devil brat, as she called me, to take care of, and to 
me though she must surely be lying about not liking 
children. This time Santa Claus did not wait for 
Christmas, but just sent them any time he pleased. 
We thought she was the biggest liar or the biggest fool 
in the world for letting Santa Claus leave so many 
babies at our house. Willie grew so tired of nursing 
babies that he began to stoutly demur against Santa 
Claus ever coming that way but to our still greater sur- 
prise babies began to come in spring, summer, fall and 
at all seasons of the year they came fast and thick. 
As brother WilMe raised greater objections of allowing 
so many babies left with her, for him to nurse, she on- 
ly whipped him the more and still the babies came 
faster. She had to muster in more of us as nurses to 
assist Willie. There were so many of the babies, and 
as they had come in so fast, she could not muster any 
of them in to help nurse the smaller ones. We, of the 
step-children had to keep our eyes wide open to see 
that none of this second tribe of the babies did not 
stub their toes and fall, for if they did, and they often 
did fall, we all knew that a whipping for each one of 
us was as sure as death or taxpaying. 

On one occasion one of the three year old babies 
came into the kitchen and by some means sat down in 
a small tub of water. She pounced on to me and beat 
me until I was marked from head to foot, then she 
pulled my hair and pinched and twisted my ears, then 
threw me out in the yard and told me to stay out there. 
It was in the winter season and was at night and it was 


feold. I remained out until I knew she had left the 
kitchen and I supposed had gone to bed. I then went 
into the kitchen where I found my two little brothers. 
I was very cold from having to stay out doors so long 
and was so filled with grief that I could not speak. I 
sat on a small chair near the fire and my two little 
brothers began to express their sympathy for me say- 
ing, ‘‘Poor little sister it is too bad that she is treated 
so mean.” When to our surprise, stepmother opened 
the door, saying, “you saucy devils who have the im- 
pudence to call me a mean woman, ” she took a stick 
and beat both of them in a cruel way. After she had 
beaten them, she called father and demanded that he 
should repeat the dose, which he did, without making 
any investigations whatever, or learning that we were 
already badly suffering. Shortly afterwards, another 
one of the babies happened to stumble, and although 
the child was not hurt in anyway, she beat Willie with 
a stick until it broke, then she took her shoe off and 
again beat him with it, striking him in the face and 
cutting and bruising it in several places. It happened 
that father was away at that time and none of the chil- 
dren present, excepting myself, to witness that scene. 
When the boys came from the field, Theodore asked 
Willie “what was the matter with his face?” Willie 
being afaid to tell him, would not answer. Theodore 
than turned and asked me. I told him that stepmother 
had beaten him in the face with a shoe, he remarked 
that “that was a pretty thing to whip a child with.” 
Stepmother happened to be near and overheard the 
conversation, she then ran in and attempted to strike 
him, but he grabbed her and happened to catch her by 
the first finger on each hand. She than ordered me to 
get a switch and I went out and pretended to hunt for 
one, but as it was night I had a good excuse not to be 
able to find one. 

I returned and told her that I could not find any. 
She wrenched and pulled so hard trying to get loose 


from him that she twisted the skin from off her fingers. 
She screamed and yelled to the top of her voice, and 
when she got loose she ran and got a gun declaring 
she would blow his brains out. She drew the gun on 
him and pulled the trigger; the cap snaped, but to her 
disappointment she found the gun was not loaded. 
Father came home some time during the night and she 
told him a terrible story about Theodore having 
attempted to whip her because she corrected Willie for 
abusing the baby. Father ruadh no investigation as 
to the truth of her story but rose from his bed early 
the next morning and punished Willie severely and 
warned him never to strike his mother again. 


CHAPTER VII: 


Stepmother never wduld allow us to claim any- 
thing and would not begin to allow us, her step chil- 
dren, to own anything even when any of our uncles or 
aunts would give us any little presents. She would 
take the present whatever it was away from us as soon 
as the donor was gone, and would give it to some of 
her children. On one occasion one of my uncles who 
then lived in California, sent me some gold nuggets by 
a young man who went out there with him, and when 
the young man gave them to me he told me my uncle 
Johnithan who I had never seen, and who I might 
never see sent them to me, and he told me he had had 
them in his possession for several months, as it took 
months at that time to make the trip in a covered 
wagon, that was the only way of making the trip in 
those days. It is useless to say that I was awful proud 
of them, but as soon as the young man left step moth- 


— 23 — 


er took them away from me and said she was going to 
save them until Ema, her oldest daughter was grown 
and have a gold ring made of them for her. As I was 
only a child at the time I have not sufficient language 
to express the humiliation I felt in the loss of those 
nuggets. She had no remorse of conscience for any 
thing she done, and rather gloried in doing mean 
things to us children. 

On another occasion father told my two youngest 
brothers and myself that if we would gather and pre- 
pare some plums, he would take them to market and 
buy a pound of candy to pay us for our labor. We 
accepted the proposition and went to work. We 
worked through rain and sun, early and late. When 
the plums were ready and father started to market 
with them. We almost counted the hours that we 
would have to wait for our candy. When father re- 
turned and gave us the candy, step mother immediate- 
ly took it from us and locked it up in the bureau drawer 
and would not allow us to have any of it and gave it to 
her own children. 

Uncle Will Johnson made me a present of a pair of 
nice gloves and quite a number of other little things. 
Just as soon as he left she took them from me and hid 
them and forbid me of ever claiming them. She took 
a little gold locket that one of my uncles had given me 
before my mother died and hid it and said that I could 
not have it and that she intended to keep it for her 
oldest girl. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Several years had passed and grandmother’s grave 
had settled and the blue grass was well sodded over it, 


24 — 


and she had not came to haunt my stepmother. In as 
much as she Im.d not paid her a short visit my step 
mother decided to venture to move in to the building 
that grandmother occupied at the time of her death and 
for several years before. She still had some fears that 
grandmother might come but she was so anxious to 
live in that building, she decided to try staying in it 
one night and thought if she did not come that night 
she would not likely come at all. After she got her af- 
fects moved into the building my father learned by 
some means that he had to go away to attend to some 
business that would detain him over night. When 
stepmother learned that father would be obliged to 
remain away from home that night she began to be 
nervous and lamented that she had moved in that day. 
When twilight came on she went in the house to light 
the lamp, but to her terror she found there were no 
matches in the house, and it being in warm weather 
there was no lire from which she might make a light, 
then she became more frightened than ever. “Oh! 
What shall I do,” she cried. “I know the old lady will 
take advantage of this opportunity, knowing that l am 
without a light she will come to night if she ever comes 
at all.” She was so excited that she could not eat any 
supper, but sat out in the yard and trembled until dark. 
Finally she recovered her presence of mmd and order- 
ed Theodore to go to some of the neighbors and get 
some matches and said that she would remain out doors 
until he came back, as she was afraid to go in the 
house for fear grandmother would come. Theodore 
went for the matches and when he got them he told 
the people that step mother wanted them so that she 
could keep a light in her room in order to keep grand- 
mothers ghost from coming to haunt her. They said 
to him, “if we had known that before we would’nt have 
given them to you, she deserves to be haunted for treat- 
ing you orphan children as she does.” “Don't give 
them to her, tell her we had no matches at our house.” 
But Theodore knev/ she would send him some where 


— 25 — 


else if he told her that he had not got any there, so he 
went home and gave the matches to her. She than or- 
dered him to go in and then she went in. She kept the 
light bnrning all night and could not sleep. When 
morning came she arose looking as pale and hollow in 
the face as if she had a long spell of sickness. 

One week passed away and grandmother had not 
made her appearance, so by that time stepmother’s 
fear was quelled, she began to feel herself perfectly 
safe, so she turned to her old way of fault finding and 
making herself disagreeable by abusing us children 
and without a cause as none of us were disobedient. 
W^e never disobeyed her in any way. Whenever she 
whipped any of us it was for some trivial thing that 
could not be. helped. If she found a button off any of 
our clothes she whipped us for that, when they were 
found thread-bare she was sure to whip us, often jc^rk- 
ing a portion of our hair out of our heads and at other 
times kicking us with her big number seven feet, which 
were inclosed in coarse shoes, also often requesting 
father to repeat the dose on us when he came home. 
When he would not, she always gave him a piece of 
her mind. On one occasion when he refused to whi}) 
one of the boys she threw up to him that he had not 
kept his promise with her, saying that he promised be- 
fore she married him that he would whip the children 
every time they did not please her. Father emphati- 
cally denied the charge, telling her to confine herself 
to the truth. That made her furious and she raved 
like a maniac, calling him many vile names for having 
disputed her word. She used no caution as to what 
she said or done. She had no respect for anybody’s 
feelings and threatened to leave home. Father told 
her she might go if she wished, so she threw her shawl 
around her and put her bonnet on and went to the door 
as if taking leave and after opening the door and 
looking out she walked down the path to the gate. 
She ^topped and rested her arms on the gate post OC' 


—26— 


casionly glancing back toward the house. Any intel- 
ligent person could readily discern that she was want- 
ing father to come and beg her not to leave home. But 
alas! She was disappointed for he treated her with si- 
lent contempt and when she saw that no one cared if 
she did go. She appeared to be puzzled, and did not 
know what to do, she did not want to go and was 
ashamed to come back without an invitation. As it 
was a cold, December evening and there being about 
three inches of snow on the ground she began to get 
cold. Father went about his business but we watched 
her manoeuvres without her disco ving us. She walk- 
ed back and forth in front of the gate several times 
frequently stamping her feet in order to keep them 
warm. Finaly she came back to the house and went 
in her room. She was so wiped out that she did not 
know what to do or say. Bedtime came and she re- 
tired without a word, but next morning §he resumed 
her customery habit of quarreling. 


CHAPTER IX. 


In the fall of 1868 father got a chance to trade his; 
farm in Missouri to Mr, Weatherford for six hundred! 
and forty acres of land in Arkansas and $600 in money.. 
He decided to make the trade as he thought a change, 
of climate would be good for the health of his family 
and perhaps his wife’s temper. So he made the^ 
trade, and sold off his household goods, and such stock 
as he did not wish to take with him. Stepmother pro- 
tested against going to Arkansas and leaving her 
mother in MissqUiri.^ but. father told her he intended to. 


go and she might stay with her mother if she wanted 
to. When we were ready to start she soon wanted to 
know where she was to ride. There were five other 
families who went with us, making thirty-five in the 
crowd. It was February 1869 by the time all were 
ready for the journey. At that time there were no 
railroads on that route so all had to travel with wagons 
and teams. We went through Eollo and Montgomery, 
and crossed the Missouri river at Herman. On the 
way to the Arkansas line, when we got into Fulton 
County, we sloped over to rest a day and do some 
washing. We camped near a hillside where there 
was a large spring, the ground all around was very 
Stony. The next day the ladies washed, the men went 
to the woods to hunt deer, while we children amused 
ourselves killing snakes. We found a great many 
snakes coiled under the fiat rocks near the spring where 
we got water for the women to wash. We put a kettle 
on the camp fire to heat water and when it was boiling 
hot some of us would take a cup of hot water, while 
others took long rods to pry the rocks and the others 
would throw the hot water on the snakes. We usually 
found a half dozen or more under every rock we pried, 
and they measured from six inches to three feet] long. 
I think we must have killed several hundred and 
could have killed more if the men had not came in to 
camp and stopped us. They brought with them a large 
deer which they had killed and it was a treat to us to 
see it as we had never seen one. The men dressed the 
deer and divided the meat between the families. That 
night the wolves gathered around the camp and howled 
distressingly. No one thought about them coming to 
the camp for the venison, but after everybody went to 
sleep some wolves came and by some means got the 
cover off the tub in which the venison was and ate all 
the venison. When we arose next morning we discov- 
ered the tracts of the wolves, and found they had eaten 


- 28 - 


the venison, we were all disappointed in not getting 
venison for breakfast. 

After again starting on our journey we did not stop 
until at noon when we stopped to lunch. Several men 
came into our camp when we were eating and all of 
them were armed with heavy revolvers. In those days 
it was said that there were a great many desperadoes 
in that part of Arkansas and from tho fact that the 
men’s actions gave cause for suspicion our men sus- 
pected them as highway robbers. They made close 
inquiries as to where we were traveling, where we 
were from and how long had we been on the road? They 
then examined our horses and highly complemented 
them as fine horses. They remained around the camp 
until we started on our journey again. Our crowd ex- 
pected the men would follow after them and try to rob 
them and take some of the best of the horses, but the 
men in our crowd were all well armed with revolvers 
which would shoot six or seven times, besides guns in 
the wagons. When we went into camp that evening 
and night came on the men folks agreed that they had 
better stay up all night and guard themselves and 
teams. They expressed themselves as not being afraid 
even if the robbers should come, but the women and 
children were so afraid we would not dare to sleep. 
Every noise we heard in the brush we imagined the 
robbers were near. I cannot find words to express 
our feelings that night. If morning light was ever 
welcomed by any people on earth it certainly was by 
us. As no robbers came to molest us we were at ease 
again, and went on our way rejoicing. That afternoon 
a terrible hail storm passed over, and no set of men 
ever got a worse beating then the men in our crowd. 


— 29 — 


I never saw larger hail stones before or since as thosd 
that fell at that time. The men all drove double teams, 
and the hail fell so thick and fast that the horses be- 
came frightened, so the men were compelled to get out 
of the covered wagons, and held them by the bridle and 
bits. The storm lasted several minutes but when it 
ceased, the men were so beaten by the hail stones that 
their heads, faces and wrists were in a gore of blood. 
They drove into camp early that evening and dressed 
their wounds, ate supper and went to bed with sore 
faces and hands. 

Arriving in Arkansas the next day we found but 
few settlers in that part of the country at that time. In 
fact, it was almost a wilderness, but what few people 
we did meet were very clever and said they would 
gladly welcome us in their neighborhood, as they liked 
to see the country settling up. It was Saturday even- 
ing when we stopped in Arkansas. We camped near 
the public road and on Sunday we saw the natives go- 
ing to church. Some of them would stop and talk with 
us; they told us that they walked four and five miles 
to church as they had but few horses, and they worked 
them during the week, so for that reason did not ride < 
them to church. They were dressed in home spun 
clothes woven in plaids of indigo blue, they appeared 
to be very religious people and some of them insisted 
on part of our crowd going to church with them and 
recited to us the Apostles command, ^‘Neglect not the 
assembling of yourselves together. ” Our crowd begged 
to be excused, saying we were unprepared for church, 

. but we promised them that some of us would go some 
other time when it was more convenient. There were 
eighteen girls in our crowd, some of them were grown 


young ladies. That evening they all congregated to 
gether around the camp fire and sang: 

‘^Yes, my native land I love thee, 

All thy scenes I love them well, 

Friends, connections, happy country; 

Can I say a last farewell? 

Home, thy joys are passing 
Lovely joy no stranger heart can tell 
Scenes of sacred peace and pleasure 
Holy days and Sabbath bells.’’ 

When they finished singing the last stanza they all 
broke down and wept and lamented that they had left 
home and friends and especially their sweethearts 
whom they longed so much to see. It was then when 
these sentiments came to them: 

‘‘Oh! carry me back to old Missouri; 

Oh, carry me back to Pike 

Where Katie may see her sweetheart Roy, 

And I may see my Ike,” 

, The next day the men went out across the country 
to look over government lands in view of taking home 
steads. Father did not stop on his own land as none 
of it was in cultivation, but bought out a Mr. Will Me 
Millan’s claim on a piece of land that was ready for 
cultivation. On this he raised a crop and remained 
there one year after which he decided to move back to 
Missouri, so he took his family back, as he decided he 
could do better on a rented farm in Missouri than he 
could on his own in Arkansas as it was so far from 
market. He rented a farm from Mr. Alford and began 
to make preparations to make a crop the next season. 

Soon thereafter two of my mother’s brothers call- 
ed at the house and asked father to let me go and make 
my home with Mr. Rastus and Mrs. Letta Readem. 
My step-mother immediately put in her objections, and 
insisted on father keeping me at home, but they plead- 
ed so hard with him to let me go. They told him that 
Mr. and Mrs. Readem were in high circumstances, they 


31 — 


had no children and wanted to make me their heir and 
would educate me and put me in the very highest, and 
most aristocratic society. Letta had told them that 
she was very anxious to educate me and told them to 
tell my father that she would keep me in school all the 
time when there was any school near enough to send 
me to. Finally father consented to let me go on their 
proffered conditions as they promised. One of them 
told him that he would come back the next morning 
for me. My stepmother was so angry that she hardly 
knew what to do with herself, but I shall give her 
praise for one thing and that is, she had read Letta’ s 
head and features well. 8he said that Letta Readem 
was a woman of absolutely the lowest, and most vile 
principles that could be put in any human being on 
earth. She told father that “if God had given the dev- 
il the privilege of making just one human being on 
earth, and allowed the devil time to sum up all the 
mean and blot away all the good, that Letta Readem 
was the only one on earth the devil had made, 
and that her designs were to get me for a slave; that 
she would not do anything whatever, and if he let her 
have me he would find it to be true.” She said, “now 
if Letta is your sisterinlaw, just please let me call your 
attention to the shape of Letta’s head; a low, narrow 
forehead, with the ugliest and meanest physiognomy 
that was ever placed in the head and face of any hu- 
man being on earth.” She said to him “that she would 
die rather then to let Letta have one of her children, 
to kill it, and she would intercede for him, for doing 
the best between the two evils, and that God would 
forgive him for killing a poor orphan child sooner then 
to place it in the hands of a fiend that will abuse it to 
death, and never speak a kind word to it.” But when 
she saw she had no influence over him, she tried an- 
other scheme, by telling him that “if he would not lis- 
ten to her persuasion and was determined to let a brute 
have his child, she would not allow me to come back, 


— 32 — 


no matter what the circumstances might be, and if I 
ever came back she would kill me. ” ‘ ‘I warn you now ” 

she said, ‘^and will make my word good, as sure as 
you let her go.'’ ‘‘If she ever comes back I will mur- 
der her, for I know that if she lives withLetta Readem 
one year she will know all kinds of meanness; that face 
of Letta’s shows that she would instill all kinds of evil 
on the mind of a child, besides she will treat her worse 
than negroes were ever treated in slavery days. ” 

Uncle Charlie came next morning after me, she 
said to him. “I will venture to j^ay that Lucy will re- 
gret that she went to live with Letta before she is there 
one year." “Oh no, she won’t" said Uncle Charles. 
“Letta is a good Christian woman, and her husband is 
a Christian too. They hold family prayers every Sun- 
day morning and I am sure they will do exactly as they 
say; Letta will not make a slave of her for she keeps 
a woman hired to work and will continue to do so." 
“She will make little Lucy her heir and educate her 
as she says she will." His speech was so flowery that 
he succeeded in getting father’s complete consent and 
when stepmother saw that her protests were useless 
she began to gather my clothes together, and while 
she was dressing me she slapped my face, flrst on one 
side then the other all to gratify her anger, but by the 
time she got me ready she was over her mad spell and 
when we started she put her arms around me and kiss- 
ed me and told me that I was a good little girl and she 
hoped I should remain so. I bade my brothers and my 
little half-sisters goodbye, then uncle Charlie put me 
on a horse and we started on the journey to grand- 
mother Johnson’s home. It was about thirty miles 
from father’s to grandmother’s home and we were all 
day on the road. 

My life up to that time had been but very little 
pleasure to me. I was then ten years old, and knew 
but little of anything except threatenings and whip- 
pings and had often been kicked and knocked down by 


Illy stepmother, bat I will give her credit for sometimes 
praising and speaking kindly to me a few times. I 
will also crcidit her for never speaking vulgar language 
in my hearing. 

My uncle talked to me most ail day, as we jour- 
neyed along, telling me what a nice and happy home I 
would have with Aunt Letta, how good and kind she 
would be to me and would educate and dress me nicely, 
and put me in the best society, and I would be their 
heir and would not have to be abused any more by my 
step-mother, nor have my feelings wounded by hear- 
ing my mother’s people called old black republicans. 
I was greatly animated with the thoughts of getting a 
home where I would be treated kindly and sent to 
school. 

It was a rough road over which we had to travel, 
and twilight w^as dawning when we reached grand 
mother’s house. When we rode up to the gate there 
were several carriages and vehicles of different kinds 
there: Little Jennie Johnson came out to the gate to 
meet us and uncle Chaidie asked her, ‘^Why there 
were so many vehicles there.” She replied, “Little 
George McLoud had died the evening before, and they 
had brought him there for burial.” Little Jennie lead 
me into the house and offered me a seat. There w^ere 
several ladies in the room but I did not know any of 
them as I had not seen any of my mother’s sisters since 
her death. I noticed one of them sitting with her head 
bowed down and was weeping. I knew by that, that 
she was my aunt Maria McCloud, as it was her child 
that had died. As I glanced around the room I noticed 
a woman seated in the corner and when I caught the 
expression on her countenance I fairly shuddered, “Oh! 
Oh! I thought to myself, I fear that, that is Aunt Let- 
ta, for she has the very features that stepmother de- 
scribed.” “Oh! I do hope I am mistaken but I fear I 
am not. ” She looked mean and lazy. I wished I had 
hot came. I fairly trembled with dread. After awhile 


•^ 34 — 


my grandmother came in the room, and as she came 
near me she asked me if I was little Lncy Pierce. I 
answered her that I was, then she said ‘‘I am your 
grandmother.” “Come with me and 1 wifi intrc^uce 
you to your aunts and other ladies.” Sho took me 
around the room and gave me an introduction to* them.. 
They all received me kindly, and some of them spoke; 
endearing words to me except Aunt Letta. When we 
came to her grandmother said, “this is your aunt Let- 
ta, the aunt you are going to live with” and she never: 
extended her hand to me, but barely nodded her head,, 
and in a very cold and indifferent way she said, “How 
do you do. ” I felt as if I would sink to the floor. Ah,, 
how my stepmothers words rang through my ears, but 
I dared not go back now, I thought my stepmother 
would kill me. I wished with all my heart that father 
had listened to mj stepmother’s warning to him, and 
begging him to see aunt Letta once more and notice^ 
her head and features; to try to solve the great prob- 
lem of whether he could afford to place his poor little^ 
orphan girl in the care and charge of a being that had 
the head and features of an idiot, who could not pos- 
sibly possess any principles much less to raise a child. 
We were then called to su})per, my grandmother went 
with me to the dining room and seated me at the table. 
Letta was seated on the opposite side of the table fac- 
ing me. She looked so surly at me that I felt so bro- 
ken-hearted I could hardly eat my supper. I was so 
ill at ease, I feared the balance of the folks would no- 
tice it and speak to me about it. One lady did ask me, 
“why I did not eat more?” I was sq nervous I could 
hardly answer her, but I managed to tell her that I 
was not hungry, and really I was not then. When I 
first arrived at grandmother’s I felt as if J could eat 
two suppers, but; when I got sight of Letta^ m J hunger 
left me. 

Bedtime and a half do^ii little girls; myited 
me to gQ np^ is^airs with them whei’e we were to 


— 35 — 


I went with them and when we got up to the room, 
they began to talk to me and told me how glad they 
were that I had got away from my stepmother, as they 
had heard how cruel she had treated me. They told 
me that I would have a good home with Aunt Letta, 
that she would be good to me, send me to school and 
take me to church every Sunday. I tried to hope it 
would be that way, but something kept whispering to 
me that they were honestly mistaken. Next morning 
grandmother came to me and asked me to go with her 
to the graveyard. I went with her and as we walked 
down the path that lead through the meadow to the 
grav(3yard she talked to me concerning my future life. 
She, like the little girls, said I would have a happy 
home with Aunt Letta, and gave me some motherly ad- 
vice telling me that I must go to school next day, and 
that I would soon get acquainted with the little girls 
at school and I would be happy. Then she began to 
tell me about what a good Christian woman Letta was, 
that she read the bible every day, and she and Rastus 
held family prayers every Sunday morning. When 
we reached the graveyard she lead me to my mother’s 
grave first. “This is your mother’s grave,” she said, 
“you’re mother is in heaven now waiting for you, and 
you must try to be prepared to meet her by and by, 
your aunt Letta will be a mother to you,” she said, 
“and you will be happy. ” I listened in silence, until 
she said, “you will be happy,” then I replied to her by 
saying, I hope I will. I felt the infiuence of Letta ’s 
vicious countenance too deeply to think that she would 
try and make me happy. My weak nerves had already 
been injured to a great extent, by the abuse my step 
mother had heaped upon me. For that reason I could 
not revive my spirits enough to tell her that I was not 
pleased with aunt Letta’s appearance, but I could do 
nothing more than to go and endure her as step- 
mother v^ould kill me if I went back. I hoped I would 
like a.:unt Letta better ou 3,-09 uaintahce, After 


- 36 - 


we had visited all the graves we returned to the house, 
and as Letta and Rastus were then ready to start 
home, we went out to the gate, and grandmother 
showed me which vehicle to get ir. Letta had not a 
word to say to me so far but she and Rastus came and' 
got in and started home. 

It was eight miles from grandmother’s to Letta’s 
and she never spoke a word to me until we had travel- 
ed five miles. Rastus stopped at a farm house to get 
a cook stove which he had bought. While he was in 
the house, she said to me, ‘‘Can you cook?” I then 
told her that I had helped my stepmother cook. 
She then asked me, “Can you milk cows?” I answer- 
ed that I had never done any milking, then she said to 
me, “Well I am taking you home with me to work, and 
you have got to cook, wash dishes, milk cows, wash 
and iron clothes, sweep the yard, carry off trash, carry 
out slops, work the garden, and do everything else we 
want you to do; if you don’t I will whip you, if you 
ever dare to try to get away from us, we will follow 
you and beat you to death ; Y7e keep a gun loaded all 
the time and will fill you full of bullet holes if you ever 
tell anybody that we are not good to you; you have 
got to tell people that you like us, whether you do or 
not.” “I warn you now that if you do tell anybody 
we will find it out and what will betide you?” Every- 
body in the whole country are our relatives, either by 
blood or marriage, and if you tell anybody they will 
tell us, and we will be sure to kill you.” “If anybody 
ever asks you if we are mean to you; you should say 
no, and if they ask if W'e whip you, say, ‘not only 
when you deserve.” “Now I warn you again, to brible 
your tongue, for I mean what I say, when I tell you 
that we wfill shoot you before w^e will allow you to tell 
anything on us.” Oh! How^ my whole body trembled. 
Oh! how I wished that I had never been born, or have 
died before I got to grandmothers. The day before I 
wandered if uncle Charlie knew that she av as so mean, 


—37 


and had knoAvingly put me in the hands of a fiend, if 
he did, I thought to my self, he is as mean as she is. 
Then my stepmother’s words came ringing in my ears 
again “that Letta was the meanest woman in the fami- 
ly, or in the world, and that she was mean enough to 
do anything. When Rastus and the other man came 
with the stove she hushed talking to me and began 
to find fault with the stove and told Rastus that he had 
paid too much for it; he argued his side of the case, and 
from that they both became very hostile, each threaten- 
ing to throw the other out of the wagon. When they 
run out of anything to say about the stove, they brought 
up another quarrel about some lard in a bucket at 
home. They never ceased their quarreling till »ve got 
home. When Rastus drove up to the gate, she and I 
got out, and when we got in the yard she said to me, 
“There is the wood pile,” and pointed to a pile of wood, 
“go, get a big armful, and take it in the house and 
make a fire to get supper with.” I took the wood in 
the house and made a fire in the stove. She then said 
“go to the well and get a bucket of water.” After get- 
ting the water she said, “now get a piece of bacon out 
of that box and cut two or three slices, put the coffee 
pot on the stove, heat that coffee that I made day be- 
fore yesterday, put the skillet on and fry that bacon, 
and while it is frying set the table.” When I got that 
done we ate supper. Then she said, “now get that 
bucket and cup there, and go out yonder and milk that 
cow.” I went out to the cow lot but as soon as the 
cow saw me, she knew that I was a stranger and as she 
was not gentle, would not let me come near her. Ras-- 
tus came and hemmed her in a corner of the fence, and I 
went up to her, and attempted to milk, but as I had 
never milked in my life did not know how to handle a 
cow. She kicked me down and then Rastus took the 
cup and milked her. When he got through, I took the 
milk to the house and Letta told me to strain it, and 
then wash the dishes. She told me to go and carry in 


— B8— 

^tove wood and water to get breakfast with, afterwards' 
we all went to bed. 

The next morning she called me at 4 o’clock, and 
told me to go to the kitchen and get breakfast. When 
breakfast was ready she was yet in bed asleep. Ras- 
tus came in from feeding the stock, and it took him 
about ahalf hour to get her out of bed, and when she 
did get up it took another half hour for her to put her 
clothes on, but finaly they came to the table and as 
soon as Rastus was through asking a blessing they be- 
gan quarreling again. The quarrel was concerning 
which one of the fields he should plant corn in, that 
season. ‘‘You are like old Mrs. Ross” he said “you 
want to wear the breeches, and I am to wear them if I 
can, and you shan’t wear them if you are three or four 
years the oldest,” “I don,t want to wear your 
breeches,” she said, “but the spirits told me and they 
never lie, that if you did not obey me and plant the 
corn where I tell you to plant it, you will have bad 
luck.” “Now, there it is again” he cried, “the spirits 
say that I must obey you.” “What do they know 
about my 'business, I will not listen to any such ‘tom- 
foolery’ as that spiritualism.” “What do the spirits 
know about planting corn and sowing clover seed?” 
“You need not think that you can work that kind of a 
lie and scheme on me in order that you may rule me.” 
Letta straightened her shoulders and raised her hand 
and said, “Rastus you commit a great sin, in opposing 
me in the way you do, for it is as true as you sit on 
that chair that I can prophesy the same as Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob did and when you dispute that I can- 
not prophesy, you belie Christ, for He said that, 
‘others would follow Him that were greater then He 
was,’ and I am one of his followers.” Rastus then 
grabbed a cup and bucket and went out to milk the 
cows, while I washed the dishes. When he got the 
cows milked he called me to come and carry the milk 
in the house. I brought the milk to the house and 


■ 39 — 


strained and put it on the shelves, where the milk was 
usually kept. When I returned to get the last jar of 
milk to put on the shelf, one of their dogs (of which 
they had half a dozen, and were always allowed in the 
house) drank out of the milk. I wanted to throw the 
milk away but she objected on the grounds that she 
could not afford to waste the milk if a dog had drank 
out of it. That night she ordered me to skim it for 
supper. I obeyed her orders and while we were at the 
supper table she and Rastus partook and drank freely 
of it but I did not take any. When she saw that I had 
not drank any of the milk, I answered her that I did 
not want any milk, then she said to me, ‘T have drank 
6f it, and you shall drink it too; it is good enough for 
you or anybody else. ” She then poured some of it in 
a glass and set it by my plate and said to me, “now 
you drink that, you wench, or I will stomp you!’’ I re- 
fused and Rastus asked her why I did not want to 
drink it, she replied, “Only because a dog drank of it.” 
Both of them ordered me to drink but I persistently re- 
fused, then Rastus arose from the table and got a club 
and they came and stood by me with raised weapons, 
and stormed at me with threatenings, repeatingly or- 
dering me to drink the milk. Though I was only a 
child ten years of age, my stomach revolted so that I 
could not drink milk after seeing a nasty looking dog 
drink out of it, in his way of lapping it up with slob- 
bers dropping from his mouth in the milk. After call- 
ing me many vile names, when they saw I would not 
drink the milk, they left me and went in the sitttng 
room and shut the door between them and me. I over- 
heard Rastus tell Letta that he would have held me by 
the hair of my head and forced me to drink it if It had 
nob been that he saw one of the hired hands standing 
outside watching them through the window. He knew 
that the man would tell it out where the neighbors 
would hear it. He said that he knew it would not do 
for the public to know how they treated me and they 


— 40 — 

must be very careful and not let any person find out 
anything. 

The next morning she came to me and said, ^^Now 
look here Lou, if Albert tells anybody about us trying 
to force you to drink that milk last night, and anybody 
asks you about it you shall tell them that it is a lie, 
and say that we would not do such a thing.” ‘‘Now 
you had better not tell anyone that it is true; if you do 
we will kill you, no one will ever know we done it.” 
“I will tell you now that you had better never disobey 
me again, and you have got to eat and drink whatever 
we tell you to. ” 


CHAPTER X. 


I had been with Letta and Rastus five months and 
there had been nothing said about starting me to 
school. One day one of my uncles called on Letta and 
asked her why she had not started me to school? She 
told him that she had been sick and was compelled to 
keep me at home to help her. She had not been 
sick and he knew it, and said, “Letta you ought to 
send her to school.” When he was gone I heard her 
say to Rastus, “that she had better let me go to school 
a few days, so that she could tell people that she did 
send me to school, and they would not know but what 
she let me go regularly so they would not talk about 
her. She went and hunted up an old third reader, 
which had nearly all the lessons torn out of it, that 
was the only book she gave me to take to school. 
When I got to school the teacher. Miss McLane ob- 
jected to the book, and told me to tell my aunt Letta 
that I would have to have other books, and that the 


— 41 — 


book she gave me was of no use. So I had to venture 
to tell the teacher that I could not afford to tell aunt 
Letta anything. She said, “Well Lucy I feel sorry for 
you, I will see if I can make arrangements with some 
of the other little girls to let you use their books.” 
She made arrangements for me; Iwent to school about 
two Aveeks wdien Letta stopped me from going. The 
school was nearly out when uncle Charlie came to see 
■ us and while he Avas there he asked me if I was going 
to school. I answered him that, I was not. “Have 
you not been going?” he asked. I went about two 
weeks, I replied. I had hardly got the Avords out of 
my mouth, when Letta quickly stepped in the room 
and disi:)uted my word, saying, “you Avent three 
months.” She immediately ordered me to go and 
bring a turn of stove wood at the same time giving a 
very vicious look with those desperate looking eyes of 
hers. I started for the wood and she followed me. 
When she overtook me she began to abuse me saying, 
“you wench! HaA^e I not told you that we did not al- 
loAv you to tell anything, you knoAV people will talk 
about us for not sending you to school and you told 
him purposely to make him think we are mean to you. ” 
“You wretch you!” Besides calling me a Avretch and 
Avench she called me many other \dle names and used 
other names, too vile and indecent for, publication. 
She ended her abuse by telling me that she would mur- 
der me, if I ever told anybody again, that I only went 
to school two w^eek. 

The next morning was Sunday and they held fami- 
ly prayer. The next thing was to hurry through with 
breakfast and get ready for church, as they never fail- 
ed to go to chuixffi when there was a meeting to attend. 
As she was a Baptist and he a Methodist, there Avas a 
meeting at one or the other churches every Sunday. 
When it was Methodist meeting day, Rastus always 
rousted everybody on the place out early, so as they 
would ready on time to go to the Methodist meetin g. 


- 42 — 


As soon as he awoke on Sunday morning, he would call 
out. ‘‘Get up, everybody right now and hurry and get 
the work done so you can go to meeting.” “Blame it 
all, be quick or we won’t get there in time to hear the 
text.” When all hands were already working as fast 
as they could, he would storm out at us, “Why in thun- 
der don’t you hurry?” “Confound you! If you don’t 
work faster the preacher will be preaching when we 
get there.” “Blast the luck! Why don’t you run.” 
That is the way we were entertained until breakfast 
was ready and then he called everybody, hired hands 
and all, into family prayer. As soon as he was through 
with his farce of a prayer he would begin the same 
racket and keep it up until we got started to the Meth- 
odist church. We nearly always got to church before 
the doors were opened and when we went in side he 
would require all of us to sit in the amen corner, as the 
old time folks used to call it, and he always seated him- 
self on the left side of the corner, where the audience 
could have a full view of his face. He always put on 
a sad expression and his face always looked two inches 
longer, while he was in the Methodist meeting house 
than it did at any other time. He usually tried to lead 
in song, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross, ” or, “Oh, for 
a Closer Walk With God. ” If we did not sing loud we 
were sure to hear from him as soon as we got home. 

When the Sunday came that the Baptist had meet- 
ing he always objected to any of us going to the 
“blamed old Baptist church” as he called it, and he 
and Letta would enter into a quarrel and keep it up 
until they got to church. As most everybody knew 
that Rastus was a praying man, the minister always 
called on him to pray, and he always granted the re- 
quest, and generally prayed for all from the president 
down to the pauper in the poor house, asking the Lord 
to touch and tender their hearts, and enable them to 
cast away every sin that did so easily beset them. Al- 
so asking the Lord to enable him to keep on the breast 


— 43 — 


plate of righteousness, that he might be able to with- 
stand the firey darts of the wicked one. As soon as 
services were over he and Letta wonld start home, and 
when they got away from the crowd so they could not 
be heard they would begin a quarrel by saying that 
‘‘he thought the blamed old Baptist preacher had a 
sight of impudence to ask him to pray in the confound- 
ed old Baptist church. ” They usually kept up the 
quarrel most of the time during the week whenever 
they were together, unless some of the neighbors hap- 
pened to be near. They never allowed anyone outside 
of the family to hear them quarrelling, if they could 
help it. They often made such a disturbance quarrel- 
ing through the night that the hired hands could not 
sleep as they would usualy quarrel till twelve or one 
o’clock in the night, and often till three o’clock in the 
morning and by that time all the hired hands were so 
nervous that they could not sleep. Letta would often 
come to me the next day after she and he had quarrel- 
ed nearly all night she said, “Lou, if you ever tell 
anybody about us quarreling, we will whip you, for if 
people knew that w.e quarreled they would say that we 
were not good Christians.” When she had occasion to 
send me on an errand, she would never fail to say, 
“now remember to bridle your tongue and if you tell 
any thing that we have said or done we will hear of it, 
for I will ask and they will tell me, if we do learn of 
you telling, we tell you, you will never tell anything 
again.”* As soon as I got back the first thing she 
would say was, “well did they ask you anything?” or 
“what did they say to you?” 

On one occasion she sent me to her sister. Maria 
McLoud’s, I don’t remember now what she sent me 
after, but while I was there Maria asked me what Let- 
ta was doing. As L(3tta seldom ever done anything 
except to lounge around and quarrel what time she 
was not asleep. As she was lying down when I started 
from her house I answered her that Letta was not do- 


— 44 — 


ing anything. Maria remarked that Letta must have 
a mighty good time if she could afford to lay around 
and do nothing. When I went back Letta asked me if 
Maria had asked me anything. I told her, yes, that 
she asked what she was doing? Then she asked me 
what I told her, I answered her by telling her that she 
was lying down. Then she Hew at me like a panther 
and with uplifted hands sa^dng, ‘^you trifling heifer, 
you, why did you tell her that.” I replied, well you 
were lying down when I left. ‘‘You should have told 
her that I was hoeing in thegarden, you hateful limbo!” 
“You want to make people think that I am lazy, you 
wretch, you!” She went to Maria that afternoon and 
told her that she had been working in the garden all 
the forenoon and that she was very tired from the af- 
fects of it. She always worked schemes like that to 
deceive her relations and neighbors. 


CHAPTER XI. 


It had been twelve months since there had been a 
religious revival at Nally’s Chapel and Mr. Holland 
who was pastor at that time at the chapel announced 
that he would begin a series of meetings at that place 
commencing the next Sunday. Rastus rushed every- 
body around on the X3lace all week trying to get the 
work arranged so that all might be able to attend the 
Methodist jDrotracted meeting. While the meeting was 
going on he always went in the wagon during the week 
and took the family and would invite the neighbors to 
go along with us. He was so excited about the Metho- 
dist meeting that he ran around like some one that was 
half crazy, rushing the balance of us so that we could 
hardly get our clothes on straight. On one occasion 


— 45 — 


he drove up to the gate with the w^agon and squalled 
out at Letta and me saying, '‘Blame it all! aren’t you 
ready?” "Yes, about” said Letta. "Confouud it I 
will go and leave you,” he said, and he whipped the 
horses and was gone before we could get our bonnets 
on our heads but when he got to the next neighbors he 
remembered that he had invited them to go along, so 
he turned around and came back for us, and as we 
thought he had gone to church, we had taken our jack- 
ets olf. Whsn he drove back to the gate the second 
time he yelled out, "Come on now, thunderation! what 
makes you so slow?” When we got to the gate, Letta 
said to him, "Why didn’t you go on to the church?” 
He said "now you know that Love’s folks promised to 
go and I didn’t want to tell them that I had left you at 
home, and when they knew you were going because 
they would talk about it. By the time he drove to Mr* 
Love’s house again they had decided that w^e w^ere not 
coming by for them, and so had taken off their go-to- 
meeting clothes and decided they would not go, so went 
on to church and quarreled all the way. When we got 
in church lie put on a long face as usual and sang one 
of his long meter songs, and prayed a long tremulous 
prayer. When church was over he abused us on the 
road home, and until midnight. 

Next day was Sunday, and he hurried everybody 
around so fast that he did not let the hired hands have 
time to clean off his old top buggy after running it out 
from under the shed w^here the chickens had roosted on 
top of it all the week, so we would all go trotting along 
the road bO fast that some of the hired hands that he 
could prevail on to ride some of the horses along be- 
hind the buggy. Finaly one of them told him that 
they would not go with him to the Methodist meeting 
any more unless he would allow them to take along a 
sack and shovel to save up the fertilizer as it fell off 
the buggy as he drove along ahead, upon which he re- 
buked them for not trying to be religious, but they had 


- 46 - 

ahswered ilim that they thought there was as much re- 
ligion in trying to save the fertilizer as there was in a 
man and wife quarreling all the week and then calling 
the hired help in to hear family prayers on Sunday 
morning and then hurry them off to meeting so fast 
that he could not allow them time to scrape off, and 
save the fertilizer that the chickens had so kindly de- 
posited on top of his buggy. That made him so mad, 
he would not hold family prayers the next Sunday; nor 
for several Sundays after, but he and his wife Con- 
tinued their quarrels about the two churches, each de- 
claring that the other church was only an institution 
for people to go to hell from. 

Pinaly one of Rastus sisters, who had married a 
man of the Babtist faith, as Rastus was one of the 
stuards in the Methodist church, she asked him to pro- 
cure a letter of recomendation for her. Rastus was so 
hostile about her leaving the Methodist church to join 
the Baptist. When the church granted the letter it 
was left with Rastus to write the letter of recommend- 
ation he would not word it so as to recommend her td 
the Baptist church, but she took the piece of writing 
from him and cast it in the fire, and when she united 
wnth the Baptist church she related the circumstances 
to the church. They received her into their fellowship 
on her own statement. When Rastus heard of it he 
was so mad about it that he raved like a maniac, and 
said that his parents would be doing right to disinherit 
her for disgracing the family by joining the Baptist 
church and also said that he would like to sink all the 
Baptist in the bottom of the sea, as they were causing 
more people to go to the devil then any other church 
on earth. When he found out what day she was to be 
immersed he positively forbid any of the horses to be 
used to take any of us to such an absurd and disgrace- 
ful thing as baptism in a stream of water, but Letta out- 
general him that time and had some of the hired hands 
to harness the horses in spite of his objections. Letta 


- 47 — 

and myself went to see her and some others baptized. 
We left Rastus at home but when we returned home 
he had disappeared, and remained away from home all 
night. Letta had made up her mind that she had no 
Rastus any more, but to her surprise he came sneak- 
ing in the next morning with his lip hanging down, 
with a morose looking contenance, on account of the 
disgrace as he called it of his sister joining the blamed, 
old, bigoted j self conceited, hell feeding Baptist church 
“Just to think” said Rastus “of Cynthy, his sister hav- 
ing the audacity to ask him to procure a letter of rec 
ommendation from the pure and undefiled Methodist 
church to go to the low down Baptist, I can never for- 
give her he said, but I will cling the cldser to the Meth- 
odist for that, and show them that I will not disgrace 
them by going with the Baptist* ” 

Soon thereafter the Methodist quarterly confer- 
ence was in session at the Nally Chapel. We had at- 
tended until work at home had got so far behind that 
Letta ordered that I should stay at home and work^ 
and as she always pretended to be sick except at meal 
time, there was no one to work but me, and she would 
not go, for if she had gone there would have been no 
one at home to abuse and quarrel at me, so it left no 
one at home to go except Rastus. When he learned 
that we were not going he got so mad that he kicked 
over the chairs and upset the furniture at such might 
as to break the glass out of the windows and I was in 
one of the adjoining rooms and heard the crashing as 
if the side of the house was falling in so I ran to the 
door and upon opening it he cast his ferocious eyes at 
me and grabbed an earthen mug, that I suppose would 
weigh a pound and ahalf and threw it at me. I dodged 
the mug and ran but I heard the crashing of chairs be- 
hind* me. I fied to the orchard and hid among the high 
weeds, as I did not wish to be crippled, and I khew if 
I got hurt I would have to pay all expenses for medical 
aid and they would want me to pay my board whil^ 


48 - 


sick from the injuries he might inflict on me, as Letta 
before tried to make me pay for things that got brok- 
en by her own carelessness. 

On one occasion she ordered the churn placed near 
the fire and the milk and churn being cold and the 
heat from the fire caused the churn to crack and she 
tried to make me pay for it. A few days later she 
put some napkins in a closet where there were some 
fruit cans and one of the cans bursted and stained 
nearly all of the napkins and she tried to make me 
pay for them. She had a cheap home made bird cage 
in which she had ke})t a bird, but as the bird was dead 
she set the cage out on a bench in the back yard, the 
wind blew it off from the bench and broke it and she 
even tried to make me pay for the cage. 

I had been a slave for them for four years and I 
was then fouj*teen years old and being forced .to work 
in all kinds of weather without sufiicient clothing, I 
was taken sick and as I had not forgotten the cruel 
way in which she had treated me during my sickness 
before, I did not wish to encounter any more trouble of 
that kind as long as life lasted me. While I was very 
sick she forced me to work until I fainted and fell to 
the floor, then she abused me with vile language and 
said that she did not believe that I was too sick to 
work and ordered me to get up and go to work saying 
that she did not care if I was sick and that I should 
not stop work on account of being a little sick. • I 
could not work any longer as I had a tremendous high 
fever caused from inflamatory rheumatism, from which 
my limbs were then so badly swolen that I -had scarcely 
been able to walk for several days. When she saw 
that I could not work any longer she told me that I 
could not have a doctor unless I paj^ed the doctor bill 
mj self, which I did. She then went and hired a girl 
to do the work in my place, and then complained to me 
for having to hire a girl at one dollar a week, and said 
that I ought to pay the hired girl her wages. 


— 49 — 


I had an exceedingly high fever for more than 
ithree weeks and every time I asked Letta for a drink 
cof water she complained at me saying that I was too 
much bother, and most of the' time she would not give 
me any water, although the doctor told her I was 
parching vith a burning fever. When I had been sick 
for a few weeks my hair had not been combed at all 
.and I asked her if she would conib my hair for me and 
she said ‘‘no I wont comb your old hair.” I was con- 
fined to the bed for five weeks in which time I grew so 
weak that I could not raise my head from the pillow, 
:but nevertheless she came to my bed side nearly every 
day ard scolded me because I was not able to work 
and said it was my fault that she had to hire a girl. 
8he never prepared any food for me that a sick 
person should have, but gave me salt pork and nearly 
all fat at that and some cabbage and corn bread and 
then she would say that I could eat that or starve. She 
; said that she did not intend to kill any of her chickens 
to make soup for me She threatened to slap me if I 
did not sit up in bed every day in order, as . she said, 
to gain my strength so I could do the cooking and do- 
mestic work so she would not have to pay a girl one 
dollar a week. 

I think I would have died during that spell of sick- 
ness if it had not been for the tender mercies of the 
hired girl. She knew that Letta was cruel to me and 
for that reason she did all she could to comfort me, 
but before I was strong enough to walk across the 
floor without holding to the furniture, she discharged 
1he girl and forced rqe to do the house work and cook- 
ing. My nerves were so w^eak from being sick and 
abused by Letta and Rastiis, that I was so afraid of 
them I pulled myself around trying to do the house- 
work by holding to the furniture as I passed around 
the rooms for a few days. Finally I relapsed and got 
down sick in bed again but dui-ing the few days that I 
was trying to do the work, T^ita would follow me 


— 50 — 


around and say to me. '‘Hurry up, work faster or I 
will whip you, you wretch you.’’ “Here you have been 
laying around for six or seven weeks not working, 
and now you shall make up for lost time, you heifer, 
you.” After I got down in bed the second time I never 
asked any favors of her as I knew it was unless and I 
would only be abused for asking her to do anything 
for me. 

My reader can readily understand why I ran to 
keep from being hurt while Rastus was in his religious 
tantrum, throwing the chairs about and upsetting the 
furniture. But I must go back to my text of when I 
run and hid in the weeds. Finally when Rastus found 
that I had to stay at home to work and Letta stayed at 
home to abuse me he decided to go to church by him- 
self. So he went on to church and when I found that 
he had gone I came out from among the weeds and re- 
sumed my daily avocations. It being Saturday I had 
a great deal of work to do and did not get a chance to 
straighten the furniture around in the room before he 
returned from church with the preacher and as he sup- 
posed I had put the room in order again he lead the 
preacher right in the room without making any invest- 
igation. You ought to have seen that preacher’s eyes, 
how angry he looked when he stepped into that room, 
and said, “Why Brother Readem has there been a cy- 
clone here.” Rastus replied saying, “It looks very 
much like there had, ” and to blind the preacher he 
further told him that we were cleaning house, and that 
accounted for the room being disarranged. Anyone 
could see by the expression the minister had on his 
face that he was not fully satisfied with the explanation 
but he had been two well raised to ask any impertinent 
questions. Rastus tried to hide his anger while he was 
in the presence of the preacher, but every time he met 
me out in the back yard or any place where he thought 
the preacher would not hear him he would say to me. 
“Why in the deuce didn’t you straighten up that room? 


— 51 — 


You left it that way on purpose to let the preacher see 
it, you want to get me talked about; now I tell you, you 
had better never do that way again.” I managed to 
get the room in order again before night, while Rastus 
and Letta tried to entertain the preacher in the parlor. 
All was pretty quiet as long as the preacher remained, 
and after tea all the family had to go to church, as we 
all knew that Rastus was liable to do something des- 
perate if we attempted to remain at home. 

The next morning was Sunday morning and family 
prayer was resumed, and then everybody on the place, 
hired hands and all were rushed off to the Methodist 
quarteraly meeting, and as Rastus was one of the class 
leaders, and a partaker of love feasts, it was necessary 
to get to church early in order to get into the feast, 
otherwise the doors would be locked and we could not 
get in. We got to church on time and Rastus enter- 
tained the audience with a long flowery speech, en- 
treating all to prepare to meet him in the upper King- 
dom where all was love, and hypocrites as I say, never 
come to molest, and where no tears were shed. While 
we were on the way home he started up a quarrel about 
religion and they kept it up most of the time the bal- 
ance of the week. Nevertheless when Sunday came 
family prayer was resumed. They always waited till 
breakfast was pronounced ready and then the family 
and all the hired hands called in to kneel in family de- 
votion. Finally the hired help became so disgusted 
with so much of their hypocracy that they would slip 
off where they could not be seen to be called to prayer, 
but could hear plainly enough when breakfast was call- 
ed. As I was one of the family I had to stay and 
kneel with them in family prayer, though I was and 
had a right to be, living several years in their experi- 
ence in their hypocracy, as badly disgusted as the 
hired help. I had no respect for their religion, as I 
well knew that they did not possess what they profess- 
ed tO; but were only what Christ, when he was here on 


— 52 — 


earth, called wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

Sometime during the years of such Sunday de- 
votions, hypocracy quarreling and worse then foolish- 
ness, they somewhere got in possession of a puppy, 
which was a cross between a cur and a shepherd. The 
puppy was a perfect beauty with coal black hair, and 
eyes like two black beads. He was the most mischiev- 
ious puppy that I ever saw; as the puppy grew up he 
was taught to take hold of anything; or any person, 
that anybody pointed their finger at, whatever the ob- 
ject happened to be. As I previously stated they al- 
lowed their dogs to be in the house at any and all times 
and as I said before I had no respect for their hypoc- 
racy I always managed to get a seat in front facing 
them and when they would kneel down they would have 
their backs toward me. The little pnppy was always 
on hand and his little bright eyes never escaped seeing 
any motion that anyone made. When prayer was call- 
ed I always managed to have the puppy near me, so 
that when the farce began I would have no trouble in 
attracting the puppy’s attention. When Rastus got in 
a deep way of prayer I would point my finger at the 
puppy and then at him and the puppy would run to 
him, take him by the coat tail and shake and growl and 
let go and bark and catch him by the heels of his boots, 
knaw, growl and jump up and get him by the collar of 
his coat and shake and growl, but nothing could have 
broke his chain of prayer that he had so often repeated 
in such solemn tones, until he reached the amen, and as 
soon as they were off of their knees the same old quar- 
rel between themselves continued which only ceased 
while in church or in the presence of people that they 
did not want to find out what.miserable hypocrites they 
were. 

Notwithstahding they knew that I knew they were 
fiends, they had the nerves to quote the golden text to 
me, ‘‘Whatsoever you v/ould that men do unto you, do 
ye even so to them..” They tried to impress upon my 


mind that I must ‘‘return good for evil; and that by sd 
doing I would heap coals of fire upon the heads of those 
that did me wrong,” but I never noticed any fire on 
their heads, though I did good to them every day, and 
I never received a pleasant word from them. I guess 
their heads were too green to burn. The Scripture 
further says The stream cannon bring both bitter and 
sweet, and the tree is known by its fruit,” it farther 
says, “Let your light so shine that others seeing your 
good works may be constrained to follow after you.” 
It also says, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord 
and the cup of the devils,” and I can say in truth that 
during the time I lived with them I never knew^ any- 
thing to proceed from their mouths but bitterness, dis- 
truction and misery wms in their way. The ways of 
peace they never knew, and from the way they con- 
ducted themselves, I judge there was no fear of God 
before their eyes. 

On several occasions I heard them relate their ex- 
perience when they were trying to get religion, as they 
called it. They said that they felt that they were the 
meanest people on earth and that they felt that way 
for more then three weeks before the Lord would 
change them. They said that when the change was 
made, there was a great changd: I think they might 
have felt that they were the worst people on earth, for 
if they were any worse before the change then they 
had l)een since they had great reason to feel that way 
and I will go ten to one ‘that they are still the meanest 
people on earth. The change must have been so small 
as to be microscopical. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Notwithstanding they were so devoted to family 
prayer on Sunday mornings, Rastus was exceedingly 


-^ 54 -- 


iond of strong drink, so much so that even hard cider 
stood no show when in his path. He would make his 
path exceedingly crooked to run across where he knew 
it was, before I was aware that he was so well advanced 
and skilled in making crooked paths in the direction of 
hard cider barrels. At times Letta would order him 
to buy barrels of hard cider to make vinegar to which 
mandata he was exceedingly ready to conform; but to 
her great surprise the barrel would soon be empty. 
If more than one barrel of cider was bought at a time 
there would be in time the same number of empty bar- 
rels, and the cider never got too sour to continue to 
disappear as long as there was any in the barrels. 
Even vinegar with a little sugar was one of the best 
things he ever tried, as he said, for sour stomach, and 
even if we prepared camphor, or even assafoetida or 
anything for medical purposes; if he learned it had any 
alcohal or whiskey in it, he would frame up excuses 
for drinking them by saying his head ached, or he had 
pain in his stomach. He always managed to have a 
pain as long as the bitters or camphor lasted. 

I was the general and only domestic and I would 
often find bottles where he had hid them in secreted 
places, sometimes in the bottom of the wardrobe in the 
dressing room, at other times in the cellar behind the 
soap grease barrels. The bottles were nearly always 
partly filled with whiskey and I never dared to mention 
it to anyone, as I knew that he was mean enough to 
deny it. Even Letta would dispute it, though she 
knew it to be true, but in order to deceive any person 
who might hear of his drinking. 

On one occasion, on the farm, I noticed that he was 
visiting the cellar quite often, and I decided to make 
an investigation as to what kind of business called him 
to the cellar so often and when I searched around I 
found a quart bottle half full of whiskey. It was hid 
in the corner of the cellar, under a barrel which held 
the home made soap, I said nothing about it, then a 


- 55 — 

few days later I made another inspection; and found 
bottle was empty. I still kept quiet and thought I 
would notice his movements after the bottle had run 
dry, then the Christian-hearted Rastus had urgent busi- 
ness to go to town (Louisana.) When he was ready to 
start he laid his coat on his arm and walked down in 
the cellar and when he came out and started to town I 
went in the cellar and looked for the bottle, but it had 
disappeared. Soon after he returned home I went in 
the cellar and found that the bottle was again nearly 
full of good old ‘‘Oh! be joyful.’’ Again Rastus often 
had special business in the cellar. Still every Sunday 
morning we were called upon to kneel in Solemn de- 
votion while Rastus seemed to be especially inspired, 
enlivened and better supplied with words from his cel- 
lar going language to express his best wishes and en- 
treaties for our better and more Christian life in this 
world and in the end a safe arrival in the uppier world 
to endlessly walk the golden streets of the celestal 
New Jerusalem. 

Then upon another occasion Letta found a jug of 
whiskey in their horselot hid under a pile of rails. 
Rastus happened to be with her and she accused him 
of being the owner of it and hiding it there, but he 
emphatically denied knowing any thing about it, and 
told her that he supposed it belonged to some of the 
hired hands. Letta pretended to me, that she believed 
his story. 

At another time while I was looking for eggs I 
found a jug of whiskey in the hay loft and as I knew 
he would deny knowing anything about it I poured it 
out. I then noticed his expression the time he return- 
ed from the barn loft and to say that his appearance 
was of a disappointed nature is puting it mild. Next 
morning he had urgent business to town. I decided to 
tell Letta about finding the jug of whiskey in the hay 
loft. I was satisfied she would try an deny it for Ras- 
tus and try and hunt some scrape goat to lay the charge 


- 56 -- 

to. However I told her and she immediately accused 
Bill Baxter of drinking it. Sometime after that Letta 
told some of the neighbors that Bill Baxter was a 
drunken scamp and that he kept whiskey in the hay 
loft while Rastus had him in his employment. Letta 
was always ready to smuggle any kind of a wrong, that 
Rastus committed even when she knew he was guilty. 
As she wanted the public to have confidence in him, 
and knowing that by her lying for him she would cover 
up a multitude of sins, from the eyes of the people. By 
so doing he would have a better chance to borrow mon- 
ey and dead beat his creditors out of what he already 
owed and all he could borrow. For that reason when 
I found the jug of whiskey she sheltered him under Bill 
Baxter. 

The story soon reached Bill Baxter’s ears that Let- 
ta had accused him of owning the jug of whiskey in the 
hay-loft. Bill was very indignant upon hearing the 
story and called at the house to see Letta about it, but 
when he came there was no one at home excepting my- 
self. ‘T understand” said Bill, ‘That your aunt Letta 
accuses me of having kept whiskey in the hay-loft, I 
want you to tell her for me that she had better know 
what she is talking about before she wags her tongue 
so much, and as to the whiskey that she had reference 
to in the hay-loft, belonged to Rastus. I never tasted 
of it but once and then Rastus gave it to me. I would 
not drink it because it was not fit for anybody to drink 
it that wanted to be half-way respectable, but that was 
the kind that Rastus always drank. ” He then said that 
Rastus drank more or less every day; and if Letta did 
not know it she was very stupid. Bill insisted that I 
should tell Letta exactly what he said, and when she 
came home I did so. Letta kept pretty quiet about it 
until Rastus came in from the field and when he did 
come she lectured him saying^ “now Rastus ain’t that a 
nice way for you to do, buy old rot gut whiskey and 
hide it in the hay-loft.” Rastus emphatically denied 


57 - 


knowing anything iiboiit the whiskey and asked, ‘‘Who 
told you I hid whiskey in the barn-loft?” When she told 
him that Bill Baxter had said so, he denied it more 
vigorously with threatings to w^hip Bill the first time 
he met him. 

Soon thereafter he happened to meet Bill Baxter 
and he thought Bill had heard that he had threatened 
to whip him-and for fear Bill would call upon him for a 
whipping and being afraid of Bill anyway from the 
way Bill had taken him to task on a previous occasion. 
He walked up to Bill and politely said, “Bill I owe 
you an opology.” “For what” asked Bill, “for drink- 
ing rot gut whiskey, and to get out of it deceive your 
wife by telling her that I was the fellow that drank the 
whiskey, while you drank a better quality?” Without 
letting him have time to answer. Bill said, “Well Ras- 
tus I grant pardon to any man when he has to lie like 
you do to your wife to keep her from knowing that he 
would drink such whiskey as you do, especially when 
he has to continually lie to his wife to keep her from 
believing too strongly that he keeps his whiskey hid 
out around the barn. You probably have not forgot- 
ten the time I happened to see you as you drew your 
bottle out from under a setting hen, and your wife 
came so near catching you, that w^hen she asked you 
what you was doing in the chicken house, you said 
you thought it was nearly time for the eggs to 
hatch, and she reminded you of the fact that they had 
only been set the day before. Now, Rastus, you know 
as well as I do, the predicament you are in, and I freely 
forgive you, and I will further grant you liberty to tell 
your wife that it was me, and not you, that was half 
drunk the other day when you put your whiskey un- 
der the setting hen to hatch excuses with which to fool 
your wife. In the future you may rely on me to help 
you keep peace at home, especially after Sunday morn- 
ing prayers. 

Not long after that, when Rastus supposed that the 


whiskey question had been settled and everything was 
moving so smoothly that he began to think that his 
multitude of sins were well covered, and all that he 
had to do was to deny his wrongs to Letta and all 
would be well, one day there was a rap at the door. I 
answered the call and was confronted by the sheriff, 
who asked me if Rastus Readen was at home. I fold 
him that he was not. He then asked for his wife and 
left a paper in her hands summoning Rastus Readen 
to appear before John Pergison on or about the tenth 
day of June and settle a whiskey bill that he had con- 
tracted at a saloon in the town of Louisiana. When 
Rastus came home Letta called him to task about the 
sheriff being there and forever blasting their home and 
family circle and ruining their good name and high 
standing among their neighbors. Rastus denied know- 
ing anything whatever about it and affirmed that he 
never went about saloons or associated with anybody 
that did, and called upon God to witness the truth of 
his assertions. In a few days the Sheriff came again 
and summoned him to attend trial. Rastus denied to 
the Sheriff that he knev anything about it. However, 
the Sheriff informed him that he would have to attend 
trial or judgment would be rendered against him. As 
Rastus knew all about buying the whiskey and having 
it charged to him from time to time but not thinking 
that the saloon keeper would sue him, he went and 
settled the account. When he came back he told Letta 
that it was for whiskey that he had stood good for the 
payment of for Old Jack. Old Jack was an old negro 
who lived about a mile away, who only got fifty cents 
a day for his labor when he could get work to do and 
most of the time he was idle, and when he did work 
he was obliged to take his pay in pruducts from the 
farm. He had a wife and ten children to support and 
was so poor that from the time his children were born 
they went entirely without clothing until they were 


— 59 — 


ten or twelve years old, when they went out and began 
to earn their own clothing. 

Well when he put in this excuse, Letta said, ^‘now 
Rastus I want you to tell me the truth about this 
whiskey business and if you don’t tell me the straight 
truth about it I am going to town and find out from the 
officers, and you have been lying so' much about 
whiskey that every lady in the county will soon begin 
to think that you are an old ‘behind the door Methodist 
class leader, Sunday school teacher and whiskey drink- 
er. Here we have been holding family prayers every 
Sunday morning to keep the people from finding out 
what an old hypocrit you are, and now you come to me 
with the tale that you stood good for whiskey for old 
Jack, how much did you have to pay? Only twenty- 
four dollars! now ain’t that a nice thing for a man like 
you, pretending to be a Christian and want to be 
looked up to as a leading citizen of the country in which 
we live, and buy whiskey from time to time and hide it 
all over the farm and when anyone happens to find any 
of it you try to saddle it on the hired hands and when 
the sheriff comes and sues you for a whiskey bill and 
makes you pay the costs, and then you have the 
audacity to tell me it was only twenty-four dollars. 
You ought to have more sense than to tell such a weak 
story as that, when old Jack has a whole dozen in his 
family and nothing to feed them on and never thinks 
about puting any clothes on them. Now Rastus I am 
an exceedingly intelligent woman, so much so that my 
equal has scarcely ever been found and never been 
surpassed and then you will try to deceive me by tell- 
ing that you stood good for Jack and I will bet on it 
that the cost was not less than one hundred dollars, 
and here I have been wanting a gold watch and chain 
for several years and can buy one second handed for 
twenty-five dollars, but you always had a complaint 
that money wss too scarce to buy gold watches, but I 
find that it was not too scarce to buy whiskey with and 


— 60 - 


hide in every hole and corner till you can get a chance 
to drink without me seeing you; a pretty Christian 
gentleman you are, to be leading in prayer in church 
and intreating the rising generation to come out from 
among the deviks hosts and make their calling and 
election sure, and at the same time buying and drink- 
ing whiskey on the sly and going to bed drunk and 
wdien sued for the payment of it, try to fool me by 
telling me you stood good for Jack.” 

To get the Jack and whiskey tune stopped he 
promised her he would get the watch as soon as he 
could spare the money, so after that she kept easy for 
a while and did not say much on the whiskey subject. 
But when Sunday came family devotion was continued 
and they went hand in hand concocting plans in which 
to borrow money to buy machinery for the reaping of 
the coming harvest and in all cases of that kind Lett a 
always acted as his advisor, and she always advised to 
get money without security and by so doing he could 
beat his creditors by taking the benefit of the bankrup 
law, and as they then had a son she tried to impress on 
his mind that it was his duty to swindle every body he 
could in order to lay up in store a large sum of money 
for their son John, telling him that it was his duty as a 
Christian to beat every body out of their money, as the 
bible says, ‘^He that neglecteth his own house, who 
hath departed from the faith, is worse than an infidel.” 

Letta had by some means learned that one of her 
half brothers had two hundred dollars that he would 
loan, so she told her Christian hearted Rastus about it 
and advised him to go and see her half brother, George 
McLoud and borrow it without security, stating that 
she felt sure that George had perfect confidence in him. 
She farther stated that she thought he would be doing 
perfectly right to get the money and never pay it back 
from the fact that grandmother had given to Mrs. Mc^ 
Loud a fine horse that she should have given to her 
(Letta.) 


— 61 — 


So Rastus called on Mr. McLeod and asked hini 
for the loan of the two hundred dollars, and, as Letta 
expected, he let Rastus have the money and took his 
note for it without security. Rastus took the money 
and hastened to inform Letta that he had been success- 
ful in getting the money without security, and they re- 
joiced together. Rastus then bought the machinery 
he so much desired for the harvesting of his crops. 
But he soon began to thirst for some of the good old 
born whiskey; so hatched an excuse to tell Letta that 
he could not get harvest hands unless he would furnish 
them wnth whiskey. He told her that he had talked 
with all the laboring men in the country about working 
for him through harvest, but all had refused to come 
unless he furnished whiskey for them. Letta bitterly 
opposed his buying whiskey, but he claimed that the 
wheat would perish in the field unless he got it. In 
spite of her protests he went to town and bought two 
gallons of whiskey. The next morning there were 
men at the gate waiting for employment, and the first 
thing to do was for all hands to come in and have a 
drink and then to the harvest fields. When Letta 
raised her eyes she saw at once that several glasses 
of the whiskey had gone down her beloved Rastus’ 
throat. After the hands had gone to the field Letta 
decided to dope the whiskey, and threw in a lot of red 
pepper. When the men came in at noon and had 
washed up, Rastus brought out the whiskey. When 
the first man took his drink he took on terribly and 
claimed that he was poisoned. Rastus said he guessed 
not and took a drink himself. He detected the pepper 
at once and threw the glass to the fioor in a terrible 
rage and started to find Letta at the same time grab- 
bing a beer bottle, declaring that he would break it 
over her head. After searching for some time, he 
found her behind the hen house. He went up to her 
and raised the bottle over head saying ‘T have a mind 
to mash your head you snake in the grass.” “What 


— 62 — 


have I done that you speak like that to me,’’ she re- 


plied. '^How dare you ask? You know what you have 
done. You are not so short of memory that you have 
already forgotten that you put pepper in the whiskey. 
I will make you remember it if I have to break your 
head with this bottle. You are the devil’s own angel 
and fit for nothing but his majesty. What did you do 
it for?” ‘‘I put it in it to keep them from having the 
cholera.” ‘‘To keep them from having the cholera,” 
said Rastus, “now you are a liar, you old infernal, low 
life, low forehead, narrow contracted temple, flat nosed 
squab, as big around as a whiskey barrel and shaped 
just like one. You are drunk right now. I will learn 
you to put pepper in whiskey, and then say you did it 
to keep off chofera when you know there is no cholera 
in the country. I know why you did it. Y6u are de- 
termined to be the boss, but I want you to understand 
that I am boss here. I only bought the whiskey in 
order to get the men to work and save our wheat, and 
now you have ruined everything, as the hands will all 
leave and we will lose all our grain, you old fool.” 

Letta listened to him until she became quite 
nervous and thought she might wield an influence over 
him by telling him that the spirits told her to put the 
pepper in the whiskey. “Now you lie again you old 
hypocrit; shut up blaspheming in that kind of style; 
pretend to say the spirits told you to put pepper in 
whiskey. You have talked spirits so much now that 
all the hired hands on the place are making fun of you 
in my presence, and I can’t defend you, no matter what 
they say, as I know you are a fool and I can’t say a 
word, otherwise I would whip ' them, but as it it I can 
only tuck my head down like a coward, puppy and take 
all that comes.” Finally Letta said to him “shut your 
fowl, drunken fly trap, you know that it is all a lie you 
have concocted to get whiskey under the pretense that 
you could not get hands to save the wheat, you can’t 



- 63 - 


whiskey to drink yourself. Laborers do not want 
whiskey to drink while working in the hot sun and she 
finally told him that she would report him to his force 
of a Methodist institution, that he called a church. It 
was then after two o’clock and the hands had become 
disgusted at them, and some of them called out ‘‘well 
Rastus it is time we were going to the field and as you 
drive the reaper we are waiting on you, never mind 
about the whiskey we will harvest the wheat all right,” 
so they went on and harvested and put it in shocks, as 
Rastus had decided to let it stand a few days before 
staking and as it was Saturday he settled up with all of 
the hands and all went to town. Next moring being 
Sunday, family prayers was resumed. Letta lead that 
morning and while kneeling she prayed for prosperity 
and a higher price for wheat and success the coming 
season and that two foreign nations might involve in 
war, so as to enchance the price of wheat and thanked 
the Lord for the fine weather he had sent them while 
saving their wheat and wound up her prayer by 
asking for a final home in the New Jerusalem. After 
prayer we all went to breakfast and as soon as break- 
fast was over Rastus said, “Now blame it all, hurry up 
and get ready for church.” We all rushed around 
equal to a lot of scared cats in a meat shop. Letta was 
so animated over the prospects of the wheat crop that 
she desired to be more elegantly adorned than usual 
and called on me to help her with her toilet and as she 
always claimed that she had a more refined taste in 
dressing than the people in general and even surpassed 
the fashionable people of Paris. 

Her dress was always entirely different from that 
of others, and I always found it a hard task to get her 
ready for church. The first thing was to dress her 
feet with green ribbon for garters. Owing to the fact 
that her hair was very thin, she thought it necessary 
to wear a large number of different ornaments on her 
head. I will try and describe how she always dressed 


■ 64 — 


her head. She wore several Irinds of artificial hair all 
of different color, one being a long switch made of 
hemp and of a brownish color. Another was a braid 
made from the combings of her own hair. For adorn- 
ing the front part of her head she wore a pad made 
from the cleanings of the comb, which she pinned on 
and let one end hang down over her low forehead. She 
would then wind two or three shades of ribbon around 
her head and neck. She made her hat after her own 
style. The frame was made of card board and covered 
some kind of dress goods, and trimmed with two shades 
of ribbon, usually green and red, and a ploom made of 
goose, duck and chicken feathers. For jewelery she 
had a gold locket one side of which had been lost oft*, 
so she took a large brass button, which he brightened, 
and fastened it on with sealing wax. This locket she 
fastened to a black cord and wore it around her neck. 
When she was adorned in this outlandish style, we 
started for church. When we arrived Letta engaged 
in sing “Oh, Where are the Reapers.” On the way 
home it began to rain and before we arrived we were 
wet through. The rain continued several weeks, and 
filled the ground so full of water that several trees in 
the yard were uprooted. W^hen the rain ceased the 
wheat that had been left in the shock all over the 
country was ruined. Then Letta said that the spirits 
told her that God had sent the rain to ruin the wheat 
as a judgment on Rastus for buying whiskey for the 
harvest hands, and she further said that the spirits 
advised her to have Rastus jput all the property in her 
name so that their creditors could not close in on them 
for debts. Letta did not know exactly how to talk to 
him to get him to sign over the property to her, as she 
knew he would not listen to her spiritualism, but she 
finally ventured to break the ice, saying: “Rastus, 
I think as we are heavily involved and our creditors 
are liable to try to make us pay them, I think that it is 
your duty to make over the property to me.” “Now, 


you want to wear the breeches,” said Rastus. “Would 
not I be a miserable fool to give everything to you and 
let you have entire control? No I am not quite ready 
to do that, you old monkey-faced tryant. Why, you 
have hai’dly enough sense to come in out of the rain, 
u.nd you have the audacity to ask me to make over my 
property to you. I would not be able to borrow an- 
other dollar if I did that and our creditors would close 
down on us. You ought to be ashamed to make such a 
proposition to me, to place me in a position where I 
would no longer be recognized as a leading gentleman 
in this section. What a fool you are to ask such a 
thing of me.” “Your creditors don’t need their 
money,” said Letta. “Let them do without it, you 
don’t have to pay them.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


“Now that Lou is in her teens,” said Letta to 
Rastus, “we must draw the lines closer than ever on 
her for it is more than likely that some young man will 
want to marry her and we must not allow her to marry 
lor if she should marry we would have to hire a girl to 
do the work and it would cost us a dollar a week and 
even then a hired girl would not do half as much work 
as Lou does and we well let her go to church to pre- 
vent people from talking about us, but w^e must make 
her go along as we go and by so doing can watch her 
and if we catch any man talking to her we will nip it in 
the bud right on the start. As time rolled on they be- 
came more and more tyrannical and even objected to my 
putting a clean dress on when J went to a neighbors 


— 66 — 


house on an errand, but would force me to go dirty and 
ragged. From the time I was fourteen years old they 
acted like they were half crazy, for fear I might get a 
chance to marry, and forbid me to even speak to a 
gentlemen or invite any young lady to come to see me 
and if any of the neighbor girls did happen to come to 
see me they would not allow me to entertain them and 
if they happened to come to the kitchen where I was at 
work, Letta would make it her business to evesdrop us, 
to see if she could hear us talk about her and as soon 
as the company was gone she would ask me what we 
talked about and would even ask me if I had told any- 
thing that happened in the family and said that she in- 
tended to ask the girl the first chance she got, and if I 
had she would beat me to death. There was a little 
negro girl who came to the house a great deal and she 
even asked her if she ever heard me say anything 
about them. She also forbid me to correspond with 
any person, saying that if she ever knew of me writing 
to anybody it would not be good for me. Soon after I 
got up from the long spell of sickness, I received a 
letter from one of my cousins, a Miss Woodson. She 
wrote a very nice letter to me stating that she had 
heard of my sickness and expressed her deepest 
sympathies for me and requesting me to answer her 
soon as she was anxious to learn if I was improving. 
The letter was handed to me by the girl that worked 
for Letta and Rastus while I was sick. I can not find 
words to express my feelings when she handed me the 
letter. My heart appeared to come up in my throat 
and my whole system trembled. The girl looked at 
me and wanted to know what was the matter with me. 
I could hardly govern myself sufiiciently to answer. I 
asked her not to tell Aunt Letta that I had received a 
letter, as she don’t let me write to any one. ‘‘Your 
Aunt I^qUa must be an old devil,” said Fanny, “if she 
don’t ev^^ allow you to write to a friend.” I was so 
nerveous that I could hardly speak, but I asked her to 




read the letter for me, and she did so. I again pleaded 
with her not to tell Aunt Letta and she promised that 
she would keep it to herself. I then asked her to 
I answer it for me, so she furnished the material and 
answered it. I burned my cousins letter and supposed 
all was a profound secret and as far as we were con- 
; eerned it was. 

Sometime after that I got hold of some fool’s cap 
paper. As I was very anxious to learn to write and 
after copying from the spelling book, and had got so I 
could make the letters, I thought I would try 
to compose a letter. While Letta and Rastus were 
I away from home one daj I tried to write, but I did not 
have time to finish the letter. I was afraid to spare too 
' much time from work, and I knew if Letta found out 
that I had been trying to write she would make it more 
than unpleasant for me. As I did not wish to destroy 
the paper I thought I would hide it and when I found an 
opportunity I would finish it. So I hid the paper and 
went about the work. When Letta and Rastus came 
i home, Letta found the paper and read it. She called 
I me and asked if I wrote that. I answered her that I 
! had. She then said, ‘‘have I not told you that I did 
not intend to allow you to write, you wench, you. How 
dare you disobey me, you wretch. What do you mean 
by disobeying me? Now I tell you plainly, and you 
had better remember it too. If I ever know or hear of 
you attempting to write another letter, I will actually 
kill you. I tell you now- that I positively forbid you of 
ever attempting to try to learn to write. Go to work 
right now and let this be the last time I ever know of 
you trying to write a letter.” I went on about the 
work and she burnt the paper, but she never stopped 
abusing me about it for at least a month. 

I had heard from my earliest recoleetions that 
their was a divine Ruler and that by His\almighty 
power I hoped I would be protected. I often v ..tiered 
why it was,’ if God was watching over me, that he 


- 68 -^ 


allowed me to be so shamefully imposed upon. Many 
nights I have wept until the pillow w^as wet with 
tears, from thinking about the cruel and abusive treat- 
ment they had heaped upon me during the day. I 
knew not how to help myself as I was afraid to tell 
anybody or ask for help from the fact that they had 
threatened me so much and made me believe that I had 
no friends and they harassed me so much that my 
nervous system became so shattered that I was help- 
less even of springing a thought of how I might help 
myself. 

One of Lettas deepest thoughts appeared to be on 
the subject of how to prevent me from getting a chance 
to marry. She forbid me to accept the company of 
any young gentleman and at the same time told me not 
to tell any of them that she did not allow me to have 
company. One Sunday afternoon there were services 
at the Baptist church and I was there and after th e 
services were over, Mr. Bruphat stepped up to me and 
politely asked me if he might have the pleasure of my 
company home. I did not dare to accept his company 
and at the same time I hated to mortify his feelings by 
telling him he could not have my company and I did 
not dare to tell him why, but as I did not answer him 
and he saw that my face was as red as fire, I suppose 
he took it for granted that silence gave consent, so he 
came honje with me. I don’t think I would have felt 
worse if I. had been going to hear my death warrant. I 
knew I was doomed when I reached home, and sure 
enough when we reached home, Letta was standing in 
the front door and when we came up to the house 
without allowing me to invite him in the house, she 
ordered me to go and fasten up the chicken house. I 
knew by the look she gave me*with herdaggerous look- 
ing eyes, trouble was on hand. I immediately started 
for th^ chicken house and Mr. Bruphet went home. 

followed me and when she got out to where 
I w^as she began to abuse me, calling me .vile names 


— 69 — 

and saying she would kill me if I ever brought a beau 
home with me again. “I don’t allow you to have com- 
pany, and yon knew better then to let him come home 
with you. Now you shall stay home from this on; you 
shall not have beaus. You have got to stay at home 
and work; now don’t you mention going to church 
again. ” She kept it up in that way until twelve o’clock 
that night; and the first thing the next morning was td 
repeat the same thing over. She kept it up every day 
for three months and she never allowed me to go to 
church any more for twelve months. The first time I 
did go, there was Sunday school at Nally Chapel and 
the school was in session. One of the teachers came 
over to the class that I was in and asked if anyone had 
a lesson paper they would loan him. I happened to 
have two so gave him one. I saw Lettacast her vicious 
eyes at me, and I knew I would hear from her when I 
got home. When I got home she said that I smiled as 
I handed the paper to him. ‘‘Now you needn’t think 
of such a thing as catching him for a beau; if you 
should I would nip it in the bud. I will put you in the 
kitchen and keep you there.” 

I did not dare to speak to a young man where she 
eould either hear or see me, and if any happened to 
I ; speak to me, I did not dare reply. Even when there 
I ' were any kind of social gatherings in the community 
and if an invitation was given me she would not allow 
me to attend. She told me that if any person asked me 
I why I did not go I should not tell them that she would 
not allow me to go, but I should say I considered it a 
sin to go to social gatherings, and for that reason 
would not go. Letta’s idea was to prevent me from 
{ going to any kind of entertainments under the cloak of 
' religion, and by that means she would hinder me from 
making acquaintances with any of the young gentle- 
men, and would therefore be able to keep me a slave 
for her. Oh! how my heart always ached when I saw 
the other young people in the community passing by 


_^70 - 


going to the picnics or fishing parties, or whatever it 
may happen to be. Some of them would call at the 
gate to invite me to go along with them, but Letta 
would answer for me, saying, “Lou does not think it 
right to go to parties, and for that reason she will 
not go. 

As time rolled on and the tyrants, Letta and Ras- 
tus continued to exert their dread sway over me, my 
nerves grew weaker and I became less able to defend 
myself mentally, from being beaten down by them. 
There was a Mr. Meyer, who was visiting his relation 
in the vicinity and by chance made my acquaintance 
and sought my company on one evening when there 
was to be a lecture on human nature, delivered at the 
Presbyterian church. 

Mr. Meyers wrote a note to me expressing his de- 
sire for my company for the evening. He sent the 
note by a little boy and when he came he asked Letta 
where I was and then Letta wanted to know what he 
wanted of me. He told her that he had a note for me. 
Letta took the note and read it and before saying a 
word to me she told the boy to tell Mr. Meyers that I 
could not go. A few days after that they sent their 
son John to the Post Office and he returned with a 
letter addressed to me, and gave it to Letta, Rastus 
being present they opened it without my consent and 
read it. After they had read it they put it in the fire 
and burned it in my presence and forbid me to answer 
it and at the same time they said they would burn me 
if I ever told any one about their opening my letters. 
Then Rastus sat down and wrote to Mr. Meyers for- 
biding his asking for my company again. “Now that 
we have got Meyers and Lou broke up” said Letta, “I 
think if we manage it right we can prevent her from 
getting married and we will get the work done without 
having to pay for it and I dont think we will have a 
great deal of trouble in keeping her for ten years 
longer and by that time she will be an old maid, and 
old maids are not likely to get a chance to marry, and 


— 71 -^ 


it might be we would never have to hire our work 
done/'. 

On one occasion there was a wealthy farmer who 
sought my acquaintance and as he was a widower he 
did not mention courtship but came to the house as if 
on a friendly visit to the family and the first chance he 
got he asked me to marry him and as I was so 
thoroughly disgusted with Letta and Rastus that I had 
^ decided that I could not worse my condition no matter 
who I married and as I knew Mr. Scrogins was a nice 
man and was the owner of considerable property and 
did not owe a dollar and an honest man and upright 
citizen and for the sake of getting away from Letta 
and Rastus, I promised him that I would marry him; 

Letta had been in the adjoining room and taking 
in every word that was said and as quick as he. had 
gone Letta came in and began abusing me for having 
promised that I would marry him and she called me 
every vile name that she could think of and threatened 
to kill me. When she saw Rastus coming from the 
field she went and met him to tell him about me promis- 
ing Mr. Scrogins that I would marry him. They could 
not find any fault with him so they hatched up tan ex- 
cuse that one of his cousins commited suicide and they 
declared that they would murder me rather than see 
me marry a man related to a suicide 

Mr. Scrogins had three good farms, one in Mis- 
souri, one in Arkansas and one in Texas, besides other 
good property. All the neighbors expressed them- 
selves as being glad that I could marry so well, but 
Letta and Rastus were not caring for my wellfare. 
There whole object was to hold and keep me enslaved 
to work for them. Mr. Scrogins returned in a few 
days and told me that he was going to Arkansas to 
look after his farm there; as his houses were all oc- 
cupied and none of them would be vacated before 
Christmas, we would wait until the first of January to 
get married. 


— 72 — 

Letta was eavesdropping and heard all our plans, 
and as that was October she waited no time to do her 
dirty work. She began to make use of every scheme 
that she could plan to break our engagement. So sh^ 
watched the Post Office, and got my letters and read 
them without my consent. On one occasion she and 
Rastus opened my trunk and stole a letter I had re- 
ceived from him and read it. She then went in one of 
the back rooms and locked the door and w^rote a letter 
to him but I have never learned what she wrote, but I 
supposed she signed my name to it. She did not mail 
it at the Reading Post Office where I always had my 
mail sent but took it to Louisiana and mailed it there. 
Cousin Addie who went to town with her told me that 
she saw the letter and that she saw her mail it. Addie 
did not tell me for a couple of months and then she 
begged me to promise her that I would not say any- 
thing to Letta about it, before she would dare tell me 
as she said Aunt Letta had threatened to whip her if 
she told me. By those means Letta managed to break 
the engagement between us. 

As I have before stated, Scrogins was a widower, 
his wife having died two or three years previous, but 
had no children. His wife was a cousin of Rastus and 
both kne v him well, and knew there was not a blemish 
against his character. One day Letta went to Mrs. 
Howckin’s, his mother-in-law, and as Letta and Rastus 
always kept their infernal, low-lifed schemes a secret, 
Mrs. Howchin did not know that they were scheming 
to break up our engagement, and said to Letta, ‘ ‘I am 
so proud that Mr. Scrpgins and Lou are going to be 
married. Even if he is my son-in-law, I can say that 
he is one of the most, excellent men I ever saw, and I 
know he will treat Lod as tenderly as a baby. I can’t 
speak too highly of him for he was so good and kind to 
my daughter, and I feel sure that he will make Lou 
very happy, and she is such a good girl that I know 
she will make him a good wife. He is rich too, and I 


am sure they will be happy.” Letta did not answer 
her, but when she ^ot home said that Mrs. Howchin 
wms a crazy old fool to be bragging her son-in-law the 
way she did. Although they could find no blemish 
against his character, they had the nerve to hatch one 
of their infernal lies on him to the effect that he had 
broken his promise with me and that I was going to 
sue him for breach of promise, which was as untrue as 
many other hellish lies, that no one else could ever 
think of, as they both knew that Letta had written to 
him and broken our engagement all unbeknown to me. 

In another instance there was a Methodist pro- 
tracted meeting going on at Nally Chapel w’hich con- 
tinued four or live weeks and during this meeting many 
people came and attended from remote localities. 
Among those from a distance was ar young gentleman 
by the name of Hosteter, who was well educated and 
was at that time teaching a Literary school of a high 
grade in a distant vicinity. He being a Methodist took 
active part in the meeting, often leading in prayer. 
He bore the finest»kind of a reputation from his neigh- 
borhood, and was loved and esteemed by all the good 
people of that meeting and Rastus and Letta had been 
eulogizing him for several days, until they learned of 
his desire to make my acquaintance and called at the 
house hoping to meet me. Letta immediately put in 
her objections on the grounds that he was of German 
descent and the Germans were not fit subjects for any 
woman to marry. With that excuse she would not let 
me go in the parlor where he was. They could not 
find any cause to mistreat him, and as he was a mem- 
ber of the Methodist church, they entertained him in 
the parlor. They knew he wanted to make my ac- 
quaintance and go to church with me that evening. 
But as he rode a horse, they to prevent us from getting 
acquainted, made me remain away from his presence 
until time to start to church and then made me go in 
the wagon with them and others. 




Mr. Hosteter was, after the old adage, ‘^If at first 
you don’t succeed, try, try again.” So in a few days 
he called again, and it being late in the afternoon he 
remained over night. They would not allow me a 
chance to make his acquaintance and that being the 
second failure, he decided one more effort. The next 
Sunday morning he came again as there was no ser- 
vices at any of the churches that day and I persume he 
thought I would not have so much work to do and 
therefore have a better chance to entertain him. But 
as soon as he came Letta sent me to the kitchen and 
Rastus entertained him in the parlor. I thought I 
would prepare a nice dinner as I knew he would re- 
main for dinner. After getting the dinner ready, Let- 
ta came to the kitchen and said to me, ‘ ‘now you go 
right straight and take those preserves off of the table 
and the butter too, and that pie. I want you to under- 
stand that I don’t intend to have Sol Hosteter eat my 
good grub, and you need not think that you are going 
to catch him that way. He is German and no German 
shall talk to you, nor eat my perserves. You shall 
not come in the dining room while he is at dinner.” So 
she waited until she saw all the delicaces taken off of 
the table, then she announced that dinner was ready. 
Mr. Hosteter remained until four o’clock in the even- 
ing without seeing me and of course he never came 
again. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


James Readen was a splendid financier and was 
always honest in all his dealings except in his court- 
ships, he usually had as the sayiug is “two or more 
strings to his bow” and James was in no hurry to marry 
as he had seen what a failure his brother Rastus made 


— 75 - 


in marrying Letta. As Rastus had told him on one 
occasion that he was in a hurry to marry Letta, since 
she had told him that she had twenty five hundred dol- 
lars, and she was the only girl in the country around 
there that had that much ready cash, and that she 
would like to marry some man that would take the 
money and speculate with it. Notwithstanding he had 
no love for her, but on the other hand was ashamed to 
be seen with her in company. But as twenty- five hun- 
dred dollars was not picked up every day, by specu- 
lation he would marry the money instead of her. James 
saw that Rastus had made a great mistake and decided 
to acquaint himself with several girls and marry the 
one that suited him best. Among the girls that James 
carried on his fiirtations with was Miss Nannie Pied. 
Nannie became deeply infatuated with him so much so 
that she made no effort to canceal her sentiments from 
him. Her father was at that time considered one of 
the wealthiest men in northeast Missouri. She was a 
niece of Letta ’s and was featured like her in many re- 
spects. While James’ heart was reaching out for 
wealth he contemplated marrying Nannie, though his 
tenderest affections were with golden-haired Louis. 
‘‘Poor little Louis” he said to himself as he sat on the 
sofa meditating his love affairs. “How can I ask her 
to be my bride since she has learned of my engagement 
with Nannie? I have acted the fool in engaging my- 
self to her, but there is no truer proverb then ‘the love 
of money is the root of all evil. ’ What will it profit 
me if I marry her and get a few thousand dollars, and 
find I have got a Letta on my hands. The more I 
think of it, the more I feel like a fool. I shall put my 
wits together and plan some scheme to break my pro- 
mise with her, but she might prosecute me for breach 
of promise. I would rather lose a few hundred dol- 
lars then live all my life with a woman like Letta. I 
don’t see how on earth Rastus can put up with Letta, 
for I know I could not.” 


— 76 ^-- 


The next day was Sunday. James dressed him- 
self artisticaly and ordered one of the colored servants 
to saddle his large bay horse. ^ ‘Curry him well” said 
he to the servant, ‘‘for I am going to see my intended 
bride.” “Yes sah, I will sah, I wish I was agoin’ to see 
my ever lasting bride to-day” replied the servant. 
The horse was soon ready and James got on and was 
soon out of sight. “My master James is a fine looking 
man when he has got his Sunday tuckens on,” said the 
servant to a boy that was standing by. 

When James arrived at Mr. Stack’s house he got 
off the horse and rang the bell. His coming was not 
unexpected to Louis and she was in the parlor waiting 
for him. “How beautiful you look today,” said James, 
“It seems to me you grow more lovely every time I 
see you and your dress is exquisite indeed, and is very 
becoming to you” The blushes came to her face as 
she smiled and said, “thank you.” James was consid- 
erably nonplussed from the fact that he was aware 
that shz was apprised of his making love to Nannie. 
“Would you like to take a stroll through our flower gar- 
den, and see our pretty flowers?” she asked. “Cer- 
tainly, he said, it will afford me great pleasure, but let 
us go by the spring, as I am quite thirsty after riding 
in the warm sunshine. ” He tendered her his arm as 
they went down the steps and proceeded along the 
gravel walk to the spring. It was only about eighty 
feet from the .house and had a stone wall all around it, 
excepting where the steps were in front of the spring. 
This spring furnishes very fine water” he said as he 
drew a silver cup from his pocket. “Yes, she said, it 
is the unadulterated ale clear as a crystal, such as our 
father Adam drank.” Each of them took a drink and 
proceeded to the flower garden. As they entered the 
gate Louis began plucking the roses from the climb- 
ing vines, which formed an arch over the gate. “How 
fragrant your roses are, said James, one might imagine 
himself in a new world from the balmy breeze we in- 


— 77 — 


hale.” ‘^Yes, indeed” said Louis. “How beautiful thb 
cypress looks today? I could look at them all day and 
never tire. ” “The same with me” he replied as they 
sat down on the settee, “and especially while you are 
here. It seems to me you add to the beauty of the 
flowers. You are a rose in my estimation, and with 
out you the garden would lose its greatest charm for 
me.” “Really! said Louis, I am afraid you flatter me. ” 
“Louis, he said with flattering 'voice, my happiness 
will never be complete without you my love.” She 
looked up at him and asked, “James have you not 
spoken the same to Nannie and have you not promised 
to wed her. ” “Not if I know myself” he said. “Is it 
possible I have been wrongly informed? she asked. 
“Certainly, he said, Nannie will never be as dear to 
me as you are, and I can’t think of marrying her. My 
joys would be unspeakable if you were only mine. 
What do you say dear, will you be my bride?” If I do 
not wrong Nannie” she said. “Not in the least”<^ «he 
said and believe me dear I will never betray your con- 
fidence. When you are mine I will never neglect you. 
I place this ring on 3 our finger, he said, as a token of 
my love; the ring is round and has no end and my love 
for you is as endless. I must go as it is getting late.” 
They arose and went to the house. James bid her 
goodbye and kissed her dainty hand. 

It was the custom in those days in the country for 
the young gentleman to visit their lady-love every 
other Sunday, he took advantage of that custom to car- 
ry on his flirtation and work his scheme to a finish. 
The next Sunday he went to see Nannie. James had 
great fear of being prosecuted for breach of promise, 
so he would not dare to ask her to break the engage- 
ment between them. James had his scheme planned 
and set out to work it. “Well, Nannie is not very 
smart at best, said he, and I can tell her most anything 
I want too, as she will believe it. When he called on 
her the next Snnday he said to her as he entered the 


—fs— 


parlor and extended her hand. “My Angel dove, I 
have come to tell you something that will surprise you, 
and you may become indignant at first, but I hope not.” 
Nannie looked bewildered. She could not imagine 
why he spoke thus to her. “Take a seat near me, my 
precious one,” he said and dropped his voice to a low 
undertone. “Darling, he said, I am going to put your 
love to a cruel test, you know, dear, that when I was 
only a lad at school^ I fancied myself in love with littlb 
Louis Stack, everybody at that time called her little 
Louis. I promised then that I would some day make 
her my bride, but I have long since found that it was 
Only a boyish whim. Since I have become a man, and 
know what true love is, I have set my whole heart on 
you and to lose you means to blight my life. Louis 
wants to hold me to my promise, and if I should betray 
the trust I have plighted, her brothers would kill me 
if they got a chance* There is but one way in which 
to save myself and you. First I have a request to 
make of you and hope you will grant it. I have de- 
cided to go to Texas next spring and remain there 
three or four years during which time Louis will for- 
sake me and perhaps marry some one else. I am go- 
ing to ask you to be faithful to me and when all is 
settled bet veen Louis and my self I will return and 
marry you. Do you promise he asked.” “It shall be as 
you wish” she said. “My life would not be worth liv- 
ing without you, and heaven will never be complete, 
until you arrive there. It grieves me beyond measure 
to think of leaving you, although I know it is best for 
you and me. 

James returned home that evening chuckling in 
his sleeves, as the saying is, over his success in carry- 
ing out his treacherous scheme. As time rolled on 
James continued his flirtations between Nannie and 
Louis, dividing his visits between them, assuring each 
one that they held his entire heart. Christmas came 
and winter was passing swiftly by. James began to 


— fs 


inake preperation to get married. Thd fifth of April 
was set for the wedding of he and Louis and she had 
purchased the goods for her wedding gown. Her 
dress was seal brown silk, with hat and gloves to 
match and great preparations were being made to 
make the event a pleasant one. There were more then 
two hundred guests invited. James had also procured 
his wedding clothes and his parents were preparing 
for a grand reception., 

On the fourth of April, in the afternoon, James 
went to see Nannie and told her he had came to say 
goodbye. He said, ‘T will start to Texas tonight, as 
my life is in danger, for Louis will have her brothers 
murder me if I stay, unless I marry her, and that would 
blight my life forever.’' Nannie heaved a sigh and 
tears ran down her cheeks. “Don’t weep dear, he 
said, it hurts me to see you grieve. ” So she smother- 
ed her face in her handkerchief and sobbed bitterly. 
James stepped nearer and said. “I will take you to 
Tevas with me if you wish to go. ” “I would go, she 
said but I am not prepared, besides papa and mamma 
are away from home. “Oh, that doesn’t matter” he 
replied, ‘ ‘you need not make any preparations. There 
is no time to be wasted. We must hast and be off and 
as to your parents, they will have to pass my father’s 
house and 1 will see them and tell them all about it.” 
Nannie’s heart was overwhelmed with delight at his 
proposal, and hurriedly packed a large valise. She 
was soon ready and the servant had her fathers best 
riding nag saddled for her. “You had better remain” 
said Mrs. Brady to James, “and you and Nannie come 
to Sally’s wedding next Sunday.” “I would gladly do 
so, said James, but my life depends on getting away 
as soon as possible. ” Sally was Nannie’s sister who 
was several younger then she. Sally was expected to 
be married the next Sunday. 

James and Nannie mounted their horses and were 
soon out of sight. We will go to brother Rastus’ he 


- 80 --: 


said, and get married at his house tonight, at about 
seven o’clock, and Rastus will take us to Louisiana and 
there we will get on the train. By this time tomorrow 
we will be in Sherman, Texas.” 

It was about eight miles from Nannie Pied’s home 
to where Rastus and Letta lived. James amused him- 
self and her all along the road, talking to her about 
their future happiness, while Nannie listened with 
overwhelming bliss. They journeyed along together 
until they were within one hundred yards of his fath- 
er’s house, and there the road forked which lead to 
Rastus’ house. ‘‘Now, Nannie said James, “it is on- 
ly one-half mile from here to Rastus’ house, and as we 
have no time to spare I think it would be better for 
you to go on alone, while I go up home and put on my 
new suit and I will be there in about an hour. So when 
they reached the place where the road forked he turn- 
ed from her and went up to his father’s house all the 
time keeping a close watchout for Nannie’s parents. 
Nannie had scarcely reached Rastus’ house when her 
parents came by and the horse which she rode was yet 
standing by tl\e gate. They immediately re'cognized 
the horse, and decided they had better stop and make 
inquiry as to why the horse was standing there. Nan- 
nie went down to the gate and i;elated the circumstances 
to them, and told them to stop at James’ fathers as 
Jaines would wish to talk with them. So when they 
reached the old Readem plantation they stopped at the 
gate, where James met them and asked permission to 
inarry their daughter Nannie. They gave him their 
consent, and after expressing their best wishes to them 
they bade him goodbye and drove on. 

Nannie kept a close look out for James and waited 
untiringly for him and when three hours had passed 
and James had not come, Nannie walked down to the 
gate hoping to get a glimpse of him coming. Pinaly 
her brother and his chum arrived and later James 
father and son-in-law came, but no James was in sight. 




I "‘It is nearly nine o'clock, ” said Nannie, ‘'and I don't 

! see him yet, something has certainly happened to him'’ 

.she said, and heaved a heavy sigh. “Are you sure, he 
i has* not deceived you,” said her brother. “No, I will 
never believe that of him,” she replied, “but I fear he 
j has met with an accident. Hark! I hear his voice at 
' the gate.” They ran to the door and they heard Janies 
yelling, “ help, help, murder, murder, save me, save 

I me.” James drew his knife and stabbed at his father 
several times, but taking care not to touch him. The::. 
James jumped over the fence into the orchard and ran 
Jway. The other men went after him as they thought 
that he was insane. Finally they got him and succeed- 
ed in getting him back to the house and he soon be- 
eame calm and asked to see Nannie. When Nannie 
I eamein Jack said, “Are you angry with me?*’ “No, I 
! am not angry*’ she replied, “but why did you not come 

, as you promised?*’ He said, “I thought! saw John and 

Will Stack coming here and I was afraid to come, but 
I must leave on. the morning train. I know when 
, Stack's folks learn of this they will seek to kill me, 
but if I go I will return and marry you, that is if you 
promise to wait for me. If I don’t come back I will 
send for you. Will you come when I write for you?" 
“Yes,” said Nannie “I will come to you at any time." 

I At midnight they all retired except James and Rastus. 
j They remained in the parlor the balance of the night 
and at five o’clock that morning James’ father return- 
ed and persuaded him to go home. 

I At five o’clock in the afternoon James dressed 

I in his wedding suit and got in his buggy and went and 
' married Louis Stack. “Nannie will never prosecute 
I me” he said to himself, “I can lead her to the end of 
the world.” A few days later he wrote to her, request- 
ing her to elope with him. Nannie was so blinded in 
him that she could not see any wrong in him, no mat- 
I ter what he did or said*and when she received the letter 
I she was so ovexqoyed, she could not hide her emotion. 


- 82 — 


She did her work so hurriedly, all the family knew she 
was excited, but she kept the secret to herself. A few 
days later she said to her mother, I would like to go 
on a visit to aunt Letta’s.'’ Her mother was unaware 
of the fact that she was going to meet James and so 
allowed her to go. When Nannie got to Letta’s she 
told her about James wanting her to elope with him. 
Letta sanctioned the plot and opened the parlor for 
them. When James came he talk to Nannie concerning 
the elopement but he never set any time to start. 
Soon thereafter Nannie found a new suiter, and James 
laughed over his success. 


CHAPTER XY. 


‘‘Uncle Laphatt I need some money. Have you as 
much as five hundred dollars that you could loan me?” 
asked Rastus of his uncle Laphatt Readen. “I have 
that much money in the bank,” he replied and will let 
you have the use of it for six months at ten per cent 
interest, but unless you can pay it back to me at the 
end of that time I shall not let you have it.” “I only 
want it about three months,” said Rastus, “When I 
sell my calves this fair I will pay you.” Laphatt had 
perfect confidence in his nephew’ so let him have the 
money. Rastus was happy once more. He spent a 
great deal of his time hunting, fishing and visiting his 
relatives. The hired hands were working at their leis- 
ure and sleeping under the shade trees, and at other 
times playing mumble peg, or such games as they felt 
most inclined. 

Three months had passed and Rastus said nothing 
about paying the note. The calves were sold and the 
money spent. Six months rolled around and Laphatt 


— 83 - 


called on Rastus and presented the note for payment. 

have no money now” said Rastus. “Well Rastus I 
need the money, but I do not want to press you, and 
if you will pay me soon I will wait.” “I can pay you 
when I sell my hogs in about six weeks.” Rastus sold 
his hogs, put the money in his pockets and went duck 
hunting and on pleasure exploits, enjoying himself im- 
mensely. Not a word did he say to his uncle about 
paying the note. Finally his uncle called on him 
again and demanded the payment of the note. “I 
haven’t got any money,” said Rastus. “I am tired 
hearing the same old song every time I come. The 
note is passed due and you must pay it, or I shall sue 
you. This is the last time I intend to notify you with 
out an officer.” When Laphatt was gone, Rastus in- 
formed Letta of him wanting his money. “Don’t you 
pay it” she answered. “The spirits told me to tell 
you that Laphatt did not need his money and you com- 
mit a sin to pay him and disobey the spirits.” “Now" 
you have began that infernal spirit lie again. I w^on’t 
listen to such nonsense as that,” said Rastus. ‘T 
would not either” said their little Johnny, who was a 
small boy at that time. “I will whip you, you little 
scamp.” said Letta. “No you won’t whip him” said 
Rastus. ‘‘He is right, child as he is, he has got more 
sense then to believe such nonsense as you talk about.” 
“Mamma talks like a fool, don’t she papa,” said John- 
ny, “I will whip you,” she yelled out at Johnny. “If 
you whip him I shall whip you,” Rastus said. Letta 
grabbed a whip and made for Johnny and Rastus 
grabbed the ironing board and made for her, at the 
same time yelling out, “stop or I will split this board 
over your head. ” She struck Johnny once wdth the 
whip and then ran in the sitting room and grabbed the 
bible and read, ‘children obey your parents.’ “Rastus 
she said, don’t you see the wrong you are doing in 
teaching that child to disrespect me?” “I don’t want 
him to respsct you as long as you are not w^orthy of 


- 84 .^-^ 


his respect. Just think of it, a woman trying to in- 
huence her husband by telling him that spirits say he 
should not pay his honest debts. A nice doctrine to 
teach a child. You shall not preach such nonsense to 
him, it must be stoped'’ said Rastus. 

The next morning being Sunday she requested 
Rastus to hold family prayer upon which he demurred 
on the grounds that whipping boys and splitting 
boards over heads, did not harmonize with family 
prayers.” She then ran out in the back yard and 
screamed to the top of her voice, saying, ‘T knew it 
would come to this! I knew it w^ould come to this!” 
Rastus ran out in the yard and as he came near her 
he said, ‘‘What do you mean Letta‘?“ She did not 
answer him but ran into the house and threw herself 
down on the floor, screaming and yelling at the top of 
her voice, at the same time throwing her hands about 
in every direction, and after putting in several g iiiutes 
with other i^erformances she got upon her knees, and 
grabbed at her hair wflth the j)retence«of trying to pull 
it out. All this time she ^ continued to yell, “I am 
crazy! I am crazy! I told you, you would run me 
crazy. How are you going to get along with a crazy 
wife? If I stay crazy you will lose all our property.” 
U)3 to this time Rastus had been looking on in amaze- 
ment. “I'll cure you,” said Rastus and he ran and got 
a bucket of Avater and threw it on her, upon which she 
jumped up saying, “you infamous scoundel, you want 
to droAvned me, because I am crazy. You liaA^e got an 
idea into you head to Avorry me to death, so you can 
get a young wife. I can read you if I am crazy. None 
but the most intelligent people eA^er go craz^^ I have 
told you all the time that a Ioav and narroAv forehead 
] ike mine was indicative of a strong intellect. Fools 
like you are neA^er crazy." She then sat doAvn and 
resting her face on her hands, said, “Now Rastus if 
you AA^ant me to come to my senses, so as to saA^e our 
property you must reason with me, for the bible says. 


— S5- 


'Come let ns reason together.’ I reason ^ith spirits^ 
and you must reason with me, and as the spirits guide 
me, so you must be guided by me. When I tell you to 
hold family prayer you must dt> so, and when the spir- 
its say you should not pay a note you should obey 
them.” ‘‘I am tired of so much nonsense” said Rastus: 
‘‘There it is again,” said Letta, “didn't I just tell you, 
you should not resist the spirits. Mark what I say we 
will be broken up if you don’t listen to me and do as 
the spirits say. ” Rastus could not stand that any 
longer so he grabbed his hat and left the house. She 
kept on scolding him until he was out of hearing then 
she turned tome and said “you must remember it 
will be harder to get along with me wdiile I am crazy, 
but you must not tell anybody about it, for I don’t 
want any of the neighbors to know I am crazy. If you 
should tell it they would not believe it and besides 
they would tell me and I'd make you wnsh you had not 
told. 

Rastus spent the afternoon at his father’s house 
and met his brother James there and made^ arrange- 
ments with him for money to pay his uncle Laphatt. 
When Letta learned that Rastus had paid his uncle 
she was very displeased but Rastus told her that his 
folks advised him to pay the note then she was very 
angry with all of them for having given Rastus such 
advice. One morning when she arose she stated that 
she had a great vision in her dream, and claimed that 
the Lord w^as keeping her posted concerning all her 
enemies. It was quite awhile before she would inter- 
pret her dream. She dreamed of seeing a basket and 
in the basket there were four hawks and one little in- 
nocent dove. Letta said, “the little dove represents 
myself; the four hawks represent my four enemies, 
Rastus, Dr. C. B. Role, Laphatt and John Read(3n. 
The basket represents their combination against me. 
Now, she said that goes to prove that the Lord is on 
my side. When they plot against me and tell Rastus 


— 86 — 


hot to listen to me, when I tell him what the spirts 
say, but advise him to pay people the money he owes 
■^hem instead of saving it for Johnny and myself. The 
Lord visits me in my dreams and keeps me posted.” 
Letta often went out on the farm and remained for 
hours and when she returned she would say she had 
been kneeling before the Lord receiving revelations 
from on high. The Lord advised her to do all she 
could to prevent Rastus from paying his debts. She 
kept this foolishness up until the neighbors began to 
hear of it and Rastus’ creditors began to lose confi- 
dence in him, for his enduring such nonsense as that, 
and his creditors commenced ^Dressing him for the 
money they had loaned him. 

As I previously stated, Rastus borrowed two hun- 
dred dollars from Mr. McLoud, who called upon Rastus 
to get the money, but Rastus sang the old tune, ‘T 
haven’t any money, but I’ll have it soon.” ‘‘Now 
Rastus,” said McLoud, “I don’t want to press you for 
the money and I will give you more time but I must 
have my money this fall, for I need it as I want to 
build a barn.” Rastus said that he would have the 
money as soon as ho sold the wheat. When fall came 
Rastus sold his wheat and put the money down in his 
pocket and never said a word about settling with Mr. 
McLoud. McLoud called again but Rastus begged for 
more time, telling him that his wheat was so belighted 
that he could not sell it for money enough to pay ex- 
penses for harvesting it. “Now look here Rastus,” 
McLoud said, “I need my money and must have it, and 
I don’t want to sue you and make you pay the costs, for 
I am willing to do what is right by you and give you as 
little trouble as possible. You can sell me some thing 
from the farm that I can turn into 'money. I will be 
willing to take some horses or cattle or hay, in fact any 
thing that you have. I will take it rather than cause 
you any trouble.” Rastus refused on the grounds 
that he had nothing that he could spare from the farm. 


— 8 ?— 

Mr. McLour borrowed the money so that he could 
build his barn and gave Rastus more time in which hd 
could pay the money. Letta learned that McLoud 
wanted his money and said to Rastus, ‘‘Now Rastus 
I don’t you pay that money, but take the benefit of the 
bankrupt law and beat him out of it. Rastus did not 
like the idea of the bankrupt law from the fact if he 
did he could not borrow any more money. Then she 
again requested him to deed the property to her. “Now 
you will give me that spirit song again I suppose.” 
said Rastus. “Wouldent I be a pretty fool to do such 
a thing as that.” “Rastus, if you don’t either take the 
benefit of the bankrupt law or deed the property over 
to me so that I can beat them, you are no Christian. 

I The law allows a man to keep fifteen hundred dollars 
worth of personal property and as much land as we 
have got, an if you will listen to me and do as I say, we 
can beat every body out of all we owe them, fix the 
property in my name and then let our creditors crack 
their whips, and do their worst, they cant help them 
selves. You know the preachers take the benefit of 
i the bankrupt law in order to protect their families: 
Just look how Morgan Motberhead put everything he 
had in his wifes name.” “Yes and got kicked out of the 
house by her,” said Rastus, “I suppose you want a 
chance to do the same to me, never will I give you a 
' chance to treat me that way you monkey headed squab 
you, how can I deed it to you when there is a mortgage 
on the place.” “Well,” said Letta, “Deed it over to 
some trustworthy friend that will deed it back to me.” 

Rastus was equally as anxious to beat his creditors 
as Letta, but he did not want to get into a predicament 
so that he would not be able to borrow any more mon- 
ey. Finally, to fool Letta, Rastus made the property 
over to his father and mother and they made a deed to 
the same and gave it to Letta. Letta thought she had 
managed things well, and at once attempted to take 
charge. She dictated to Rastus how he should man- 


- 88 — 

age the farm and stock. Rastus often became so vexed 
at her that he threatened to kick her off the farm, but 
she then reminded him that the farm was hers. On 
one occasion there was a colt among the stock w^hich 
happened to be one of the increase of the mare that 
she owned when she ard Rastus w^ere married; and she 
consequently claimed the right to name it, and from 
the time it was two days old until it died two years af- 
ter, they quarried about its name. Rastus called it 
Kate and Letta called it Nellie. When Rastus spoke 
of Kate a quarrel would always follow, which would 
always extend into the middle of the night. These 
quarrels disturbed every body on the place so much 
that some of the hired men called on Rastus for a set- 
tlement, saying they could not stand it to work hard 
in the field all day and be kept awake all night by their 
quarrels. Not only did they quarrel betw^een them- 
selves about the colt’s name, but drew Johney and my- 
self into it. If we called it Kale, Letta would abuse 
us, and if we called it Nellie, we imediately heard from 
Rastus. This was kept up even for some time after 
the colt was dead. 

One day Letta thought she would get the deed out 
from among some other papers to see what her farm 
was valued at, and when she looked it over she found 
that there was no name signed to it. ^ This so enraged 
her that she threw herself on the floor, screamed and 
tore her hair, crying Oh, my money! my money! It 
is all gone! What will become of me? We will have 
to pay our debts, and then we’ll have no money! Oh, 
Lord, show me some way to save our property. 

Rastus finally decided to change the deeds another 
way to appease her, so he suggested to her that they 
make the property over to his brother James. Letta 
quickly consented to the scheme with the . understand- 
ing that James would deed it back to her. James had 
been perfectly quiet concerning the money they OAved 
him and for that reason they thought he Avould not 


— 89 — 


press them for it. Rastus and Letta called on James 
and acquainted him with the fact that they were deep- 
ly involved and desired to transfer their land to him 
and have him transfer it back to Letta. James san- 
tioned the plan, and encouraged them saying it was 
the very thing for them to do. They deeded 
their farm to James Readen and as soon as they made 
the deed and gave it to James he put it on record and 
then told Letta he would deed it back to her when 
Rastus paid him the money he owed. When Letta 
heard this she was completely beaten. She railed at 
him saying, ^^you villian, I will have you ar- 
rested and send you to the state prison, if you don't 
make that deed over to me. " James only laughed at 
her and said, ‘‘pay me my money and I will give you 
the deed. " 

Mr. McLoud again asked Rastus for the two-hun- 
dred dollars he owed him, but Rastus again cried no 
money and talked of whipping him for so -often asking 
him to pay the note. Finally Mr. McLoud entered 
suit against him. Rastus hired a lawyer to defend 
him and had the trial put off from one court to another 
as long as the law would allow. Mr. McLoud finally 
got judgement for the note and cost of trial, but Ras- 
tus continued -to make threats against him and Mr. Mq- 
Loud was informed of Rastus throating to whip him. 

One day McLoud chanced to meet |Ljetta §nd said 
to her, “Look here Letta, I hear that your little Meth- 
odist talks of giving me a whipping. " Ivetta pretended 
not to hear him. Mr. McLoud went near her and tak- 
ing her by the sleeve said, ‘'Listen to me. I hear 
that Rastus intends to whip me. Now, you tell your 
little Methodist classleader that any time he wants to 
whip me to come down and I will accomodate him. 
Tell him for me that I am ready for the whipping at 
any time. He will have to eat more potatoes and pork 
and grow some more before. he will be able to whip 
me./’ Wljen Letta went home she related- the-cireum^ 


— 90 - 


stances to Rastus and insisted on him to have Mr. Mc- 
Loud arrested for assault and battery. This she suc- 
ceeded in getting him to do and the court find him one 
dollar and cost, which amounted to fifty dollars. Let- 
ta rejoiced in her spirit dreams. Rastus went on bor- 
rowing money from everybody he could, till everj 
horse and in fact all of the stock were mortgaged. 

On on occasion when one of his creditors, who 
held a mortgage on some of the horses called on Ras- 
tus and asked him for the payment of the mortgage, 
Letta planned to have the mortgaged horse taken out 
in the woods and hidden. She suggested the idea to 
Rastus, but he tried to convince her that it would 
not do, as the horses were mortgaged and he was 
bound to deliver them to the sheriff if his creditors 
should close the mortgage. Letta would not listen to 
him, but continued to quarrel with him about being a 
poor manager. 

James finally told Rastus if he could pay him the 
money he owed him, he would make a deed to the farm 
in Letta’s name. Rastus could not pay him, and Letta 
began threatening him again and finally told him that 
she intended to have him sent to the penitentiary. 
‘‘Well Letta, said James, I will make the deed over to 
you tomorrow.” He borrowed a thousand dollars and 
mortgaged the farm for the same, deeding it to her, 
subject to the mortgage. Letta, not noticing that it 
was subject to the mortgage, took the deed and placed 
it on record. James payed himself with part of the 
money he borrowed and gave the balance to Rastus So 
he could pay the mortgage off of the horses Letta 
was in the dark concerning the borrowed money, or 
the mortgage on the land. She thought she had won 
a great victory over James by threatening, to have him 
sent to the penitentiary. Rastus knew all about it but 
carefully concealed ^at from her. He knew she was a 
stupid woman and not likely to find out that there was 
mortgage on the land until it became due. 


— 91 — 


Family prayer again went on regular on Sunday. 
‘‘NowRastus, ’’saidLetta, ‘‘this farm belongs to me, and 
it is my duty as a Christian to rule my own household, 
and that means you and all parties on the farm. You 
and all hands on the farm shall come and go at my 
bidding.” This was a stunner for Rastus, but he was 
afraid to tell her what kind of a predicament he was in. 
The way Letta behaved herself from then on was ter- 
rible. For instance, she tried to force everybody on 
the place to eat rotten meats which had been put in 
brine for the purpose of making pickle pork. She 
would not allow any meat cooked except that pork 
from the brine. She and Rastus quarelled day and 
night about the meat. His orders were that the meat 
should not be cooked and her orders were that it 
should. When he started to the field in the morning 
his last orders to me were, ‘.‘Don't you cook any of 
that meat for dinner.” As soon as he was out of sight 
Letta would say. “You shall cook some of that pickle 
pork for dinner. ” As I knew it did not make any dif- 
ference which I disobeyed for I would be abused any 
way,, and as I was not fond of rotten meat, I choose to 
disobey Letta. When she saw I would not cook the 
meat, she notwithstanding her laziness, would get a 
chunk of the meat and put in a kettle and place it on 
the stove, and then say to me, “now that is the only 
meat that shall be cooked. When dinner was called 
and all hands were at the table, Rastus would then say 
to me, “didn’t I tell you not to cook any more of this 
rotten meat?” I told him that Letta cooked it. Then 
the quarrel began and lasted until he started to the 
field. When she saw she could not get Rastus nor the 
hired hands to eat it, she said she intended to force 
Addie and me to eat it, but I decided to do what I did 
when they both tried to force me to drink the milk 
after a dog haxl drank of it. As none of us would eat 
any of the meat she tried to eat all of it her self, so 
she cooked and ate freely of it every day. The liavor 


- 92 - 


became so offensive I decided I would destroy a small 
portion of it at a time as opportunity afforded me. I 
took some of it at night and carried it across the field 
and threw it in a ditch. After I had repeated this 
several times, one of their dogs went across the field 
and found some of it, and brought it back. Letta hap- 
pened to be in the back yard when the dog came lugg- 
ing it in his mouth. Letta suspected me of being the 
one that had threw the meat away, and accused me of 
it. I acknowledged the ch arge, and to say that she 
abused me is putting it mildly. I never heard viler 
language proceed from the lips of any human being 
then she spoke to me. She ended her discourse by 
saying that rotten meat was good enough for me or 
anybody else to eat and Rastus would be glad to get as 
good meat as that to eat some day, as he was already 
a pauper who was not worth the shirt that was on his 
back, and dependent on her for shelter. 

After the pork was used up I thought peace would 
be restored but I found that to hope for peace was to 
hope in vain. Rastus went fishing and brought home 
about two hundred pounds of buffalo fish, and it be- 
ing warm weather it was soon spoiled. Letta salted 
it and tried the game on us that she had with the pork 
but none of us would eat the rotten fish, but neverthe- 
less Letta would cook it. I never shal] forget on one 
occasion when she had a large dish full of this fish 
cooked for dinner, one of her favorite nephews happen- 
ed to call just as dinner was ready and Letta insisted 
on him taking dinner with her. He excepted the in- 
vitation and notwithstanding the scent from the fish 
was so sickening that I could hardly stay in the house. 
Letta passed the fish to him, and said, ‘‘John, will you 
have some fish‘ they are spoiled, but they don’t taste 
bad.” “No, thank you,’! said John. He could not 
help showing by the expression on his face that he 
was disgusted with her for eating spoiled fish, and he 
has said singe that he never could respect her as h 


— 93 — 


Would like since he saw her eat 'Spoilt fish. He could 
not understand what could possess anybody to eat such 
meat in a civilized world and in a land where there was 
plenty of everything that was good. If there happen- 
ed to be any other kind of food on the place that was 
spoiled she would try to compel us to eat it. I had 
gathered some cherries and made about a quart of 
preserves, and one morning during the time wheat was 
being harvested, I placed a glassful of the preserves 
on the table for breakfast: When Letta discovered 
them on the table she ordered me to take them ofi, 
saying she could not afford to feed harvest hands on 
bherry preserves. I took them off of the table and as 
I had only prepared them for the present use I had 
not preserved them sufficiently to keep in warm weath- 
er, consequently they soon soured; When Letta saw 
they were spoiled she then wanted us to eat them. 
There were many other instances in which she tried to 
make us eat unwholesome food, but they are too num- 
erous to mention. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


As time rolled on Letta made herself obnoxious 
both at home and in the vicinity in which we lived. 
She actually went to such an extreme that she would 
not allow the family to eat Irish potatoes, or even 
sweet potatoes, but confined us to tomatoes, green 
apples, onions, corn bread and butter milk. She said 
we must live cheap, hired hands and all, for the spir- 
its had told her that we were all committing the un- 
pardonable sin in eating such things as she could put 
on the market for money. Besides she said the spirits 
had told her that all of us needed to take a dose of 


- 94 ’ 


Calomel, and as she said tomatoes contained a large 
potion of calomel, so we must eat tomatoes in order to 
set our livers in action; eat green apples to work the 
tomatoes off, and eat onions to work the green apples 
off ; drink butter milk to work off the onions, and the 
corn bread would give us bone and muscle, enabling 
us to do lots of work. 

It was in the warm month of July when she made 
this new command, and in my opinion if there ever is a 
time when the men who work on the farm require 
something nourishing to eat, it is when he is working 
in the field during the warm months of July and Aug- 
ust. Letta demanded that the bill of fare should be 
carefully prepared, and the orders of the spirits should 
be strictly complied with. She would sit in the dining 
room or somewhere near and watch to be sure there 
were was nothing added to the bill of fare. When 
meals were called and all were at the table, Rastus 
would complain of the diet and ordered me to cook 
potatoes, but I told him that Letta had positively for- 
bidden my preparing any thing excepting what the 
spirits had directed. If I attempted to prepare any 
thing more she would take it from the stove and for- 
bid my cooking it. He then turned to her and told her 
he must have something more nourishing to eat as 
neither he nor the hired hands could work in the field 
and subsist on what they were having. “Nov look 
here Rastus” said Letta, “my guiding spirit is hygien- 
ic and know better what is best for you then you do. 
You have no right to rebel against the spirits but eat 
such as they prescribe.” 

At this statement Rastus and all the hired hands 
became indignant and Rastus told her that she was led 
by the devil. “You’re the devils own angel,” said he, 
“trying to diet us on tomatoes, green apples and onions 
and then have the audacity to tell us the spirits pre- 
scribed it for us. I am a fool for putting up with such 
a woman. Why it is absurd and I know all the hired 


_ 95 — 


hands will agree that it is a lie of your own about spir- 
it prescribing for our health.’’ Turning to one of the 
hired men, Joe, he asked him what he thought of a 
woman, claiming that spirits advise apples and tomatoes 
as a diet for their health. Joe hesitated to answer at 
first but when Rastus asked the second time for his 
opinion he said, ‘‘Well Rastus I don’t like to interfere 
with you and your wife’s difficulties but I would be 
willing to risk a more substantial diet. It must be a 
warm spirit that told her that kind of diet was what 
all of us needed and the spirit that she has been talk- 
ing to must have had a peep at her and thought she was 
wormy, and decided to try an experiment on all of us 
but I don’t take any more of the prescription the spir- 
its prescribe for I am sick of eating green apple pie 
and drinking sour butter milk. 

After the confusion was over they all started to 
the field again and Rastus left strict orders for a good 
dinner, and especially ordered potatoes for dinner^ 
When the time came to begin dinner I got the hoe and 
proceeded to the garden. Letta soon missed me and 
as she supposed I had gone to the garden for potatoes 
she came around the corner of the house and yelled 
out, “What are you doing there?” I told her that I 
was digging potatoes. “Stop right this minute, you 
wretch” she said “didn’t I forbid you cooking anything 
except tomatoes? How dare you go in my garden and 
dig my potatoes without my consent! Now 1 want you 
to understand that this is my farm and I am determined 
to be the boss of it. My hired hands may eat what I 
have set before them, or starve. They may be glad 
to get green apples and tomatoes to eat before they 
die. March yourself right in the kitchen now and 
slice some tomatoes and cook some corn bread and 
don’t you let me catch you getting potatoes again. ” 
I went to the kitchen and did as she bid me and when 
dinner was called they all sat down to the table and 
after Rastus looked around and saw the same old bill 


- 96 --. 


of fare he asked me where the potatoes were that he 
had ordered cook and after I told him that Letta would 
not let me cook them he replied, ‘‘Well who is boss?” 
Aunt Letta says she is I replied. “Letta, said he, why 
did you not let her cook the potatoes?” “You already 
know why” said Letta, ‘ ‘go ahead and eat such as is 
set before you and be thankful for it. The spirits are 
liable to cut your rations down less then they have.” 
Rastus took the tomatoes and threw plate and all out 
of doors. Letta never yielded in the least, and there 
was no change in the bill of fare, as long as tomatoes 
and green apples lasted during the season. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


Mrs. Dora Howchin was an estimable young lady^ 
and was a third cousin to Rastus by marriage, and as 
the Readen family always kept a pedigree of their 
generations, they claimed their lineage to the fourth 
and fifth descendents, and Dora often visited us as a 
relative since she married in the family. One after- 
noon she brought her baby, which was at that time 
six months old. While she was passing about the 
rooms in the house she happened to discover a large 
safety pin lying on the dresser, picking it up she ex- 
claimed, “Oh, Lou I wish you would give this pin to 
me in exchange for a small one I have. I need it to 
fasten the baby's cape on.” I told her she would have 
to ask aunt Letta as it was not mine. So she asked 
Letta to trade with her. Letta made no objections, but 
told her to take the pin and which she did. Safety 
pins were only worth five cents per dozen, but notwith- 
standing they were so cheap and Letta had made the 
trade herself, as soon as Dora left she abused me about 


the pin, saying she believed I had put Dora up to ban* 
ter her for a trade. I do not exaggerate when I say 
she preached every day for two months about that 
safety pin. When I asked her why she traded with 
Dora if she did not want to make the trade. “Now 
you knew that I would not refuse her the pin as she 
would talk about it if I did. She would tell all How- 
chin family about my refusing so small a thing as a 
safety pin. Now wouldn't that be a pretty story to 
get out on me?" She kept up the preaching until fin- 
ally I told her that the next time I would see Dora I 
would tell her to bring the pin back and I would also 
tell her that we had quarelled every day since she 
was here about it. “If you dare to tell her" said Let- 
ta “I will cut your throat. I would murder you if 
you should say one word to her about it. It is done 
now and can't be undone. I would rather lose it than 
have her know I am angry about it. Let this be a 
warning to you and never put anyone up to banter me 
for a trade again." I told her I had not })ut her up to 
do anything of the kind. She said she would not be- 
lieve me, but I never heard her say any more about it. 
I suppose she was afraid I would tell Dora, which I 
did after I was married. 

Letta and Rastus were both very shy with their 
meanness, and through their own wretchedness they 
came very near losing their son, Johnny. When John- 
ny was about four and ahalf years old he formed a hab- 
it of striking me, sometimes with a stick and other 
times with his hand. He often times hurt me as he 
frequently struck me on the head, arms and hands. 
Letta and Rastus both upheld him in striking me and 
Letta often told him to spit in my face. By their en- 
couraging him and teaching him to be naughty, He 
continued this conduct until he was about seven years 
old. One day I was washing and I had an iron boiler 
on the fire. I made strong soap suds and put it in the 
boiler to heat and when it was boiling hot I attempte d 


to add some of the hot suds to my washing. Just as I 
lifted a half gallon cup full of the hot suds, Johnny 
ran up in front of me and struck me in the stomach 
with both his fists. As I did not see him before he 
struck, I had no chance to escape the blow and when 
he struck me it unbalanced me and caused the hot suds 
to spill on him. He caught the whole of the half gal- 
lon of boiling suds on the back of his head and shoul- 
ders. The poor child suffered intense agony from the 
scald and came very near dying. If the little fellow 
had died it would have been the fault of his parents. 
When they look upon the scars on Johnny, s body to 
this day they see marks caused by their own wicked- 
ness. I don’t believe they had ever had any re- 
morse of conscience on account of it, but it learned the 
child a lesson, as the little fellow never struck me any 
more. 

Letta did not only teach Johnny to mistreat me 
but she taught him to fight other children and especial- 
ly if it happened to be a child of some one she was 
prejudiced against. For instance she did not like Dr. 
Role who was a brother-in-law to Rastus. Knowing 
Letta’s weak calibre and avaricious disposition the 
Doctor would not have anything to do with her. Dr. 
Role had a little boy two years younger then Johnny 
and as they lived near each other often played togeth- 
er. Letta taught Johnny to fight with the Doctor’s 
child, often telling him to knock him down and beat 
the life out of him. The two little boys never spent 
the day together without fighting. 

On one occasion the Doctor brought his little boy 
Willie, over to stay with Johnny while he went to 
town. There was no one at home excepting Johnny 
and myself. Little Willie had not been there very 
long before Johnny began to fight him. I parted them 
several times, but as I had my domestic duties to at- 
tend to, I could not be with them all the time, but as 
soon as I was out of sight, they would begin to fight. 


— 99 — 


As Johnny was two years older then Willie, he was 
much the stronger and could have killed Willie. I 
heard Willie crying and so I ran in and found Johnny 
with a hatchet in his hand, threatening to split Willie’s 
head. As Johnny’s mother had often told him to beat 
Willie to death, it is likely that Johnny had decided to 
please his mother by putting an end to Willie. I took 
the hatchet from Johnny and told him he should not 
treat Willie so mean. When Letta arrived home I told 
her that Johnny drew the hatchet over Willie and 
threatened to split his head open. Letta only laughed 
and said she did not care. She was the most cruel 
hearted woman I ever saw, notwithstanding she pro- 
fessed to be one of God’s chosen vessels in which to 
carry on his holy work. She always rejoiced over 
the downfall of any person or their child that she did 
not happen to like. For instance this same little Wil- 
lie when he was about seven years old took the gun 
from the house and attempted to shoot a chicken as he 
had heard his mother say she wanted one for dinner 
and he had seen his father shoot them. He thought 
he would show his parents that he could shoot chick- 
ens too. He got the gun without the knowledge of his 
parents and by some means the gun accidently fired 
and shot Willie. The shot taking effect on his arm 
and hand. It was a severe wound and he came very 
near losing his hand. When Letta heard of the acci- 
dent she acted as if she was glad the child was hurt. 
She never spoke a word of sympathy in favor of the 
poor unfortunate child but she abused and censured 
him for having such confidence in himself. Letta 
used a great deal of vile language toward the little 
fellow and called him many names, saying it would be 
no pity for him if he died from the effects of the wound. 
I think she was in hopes the child would die, but to her 
disappointment little Willie lived over it without los^- 
ing Ms hand. ^ 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


Professor Hornbec was a musician and by this pro- 
fession he maintained his entire support. He was 
highly accomplished in both instrumental and vocal 
music, and as there was a large number of 
young people living in what is known as the Grassy 
creek vicinity, the Professor decided to try his luck in 
getting up a vocal class. One evening when prayer 
was held at the Chapel he was present and when ser- 
vices were over he asked the audience to remain a 
time and after explaining to them his object he said he 
knew of no better opening on earth for a singing school 
then there and that he was sure he never had faced a 
more intellectual audience then there. He said, ‘T am 
here to night for the purpose of trying to organize a 
vocal class. I teach the notes and after any person 
has thoroughly learned to read the letters on the staff, 
and the key in which a piece of music is written they 
find no difficulty in advancing with their musical 
studies. Now, said he, I would like to know how many 
there are here to night that would like to learn to sing. 
As many as would like to have a school taught here 
should rise.” He took a paper and pencil and went 
around and took down the names of all who wished to 
subscribe to the school. He got a good number of 
names on the list, and among others Rastus signed his 
name and mine. Before the Professor dismissed the 
audience he taught one lesson on the black board. I 
readily understood his explanations and was delighted 
with the thought of the chance to learn to read music. 
Wh(3n we got home I told Letta about Professor Horn- 
bec having organized a singing school, and that Rastus 


had signed our names* She yelled out in a loud toiie, 
“Now I will see that you don’t go one step to the sing- 
ing school to fool your time away. Trying to learn to 
sing the round notes. I know for I studied them three 
years and never learned one note from another; they 
all look alike. ” I told her that the letters on the scale 
were not read by their shape but by the position they 
held on the staff and that I knew I could learn it. 
“You wretch,” she said, “that is as much as to say 
you have got more sense than I have. Don’t you re- 
peat that again. I know you could not learn to read 
the round notes, for I could not, and I know when I 
can’t learn them nobody else can. Round notes can’t 
be learned. They are for instrumental and never was 
intended to be sung. ” I told her that the Professor 
had sang them that night, but she said that was a lie. 
“He is a scoundrel, ” she said, “he made believe he 
was singing them to fool you out of your money. He 
plainly saw in your fool faces what a set of ignoramuses 
he had in his power. The thief had the audacity to get 
up there and read the ignorance he saw in a set of 
fools and called it vocal music. If he had called it a 
system of teaching you how to sing money out of a 
school of fool’s pockets instead of a system of teaching 
tocal round notes he would have called it by the right 
name. 

I had learned to read the letters on the scale that 
night and when I told her she yelled out, “Who ever 
heard of notes being called letters. Now that shows 
that you were fooled.” I would soon learn the keys I 
said to her. “Who ever heard of music having keys to 
it? That could not be for what use would keys be to 
music? Keys are to lock and unlock doors and peni- 
tentiaries, but how could you lock and unlock music? 
He shall never get a dollar from this house for talking 
such nonsense as that.” Finally I told her that I would 
pay my own tuition if she would let me go. “No, she 
said, you must stay at home and work. That infernal 


— 102 — 

rascal ought to be locked up in the penitentary with 
keys. And he even took the liberty to tell that crowd 
that they were an intelligent set of people. If there 
had been a gentleman in the crowd that teacher would 
have been taken out of the house. You shall not spend 
one cent of your money for music lessons. I know 
what you want to go to singing school for. You think 
you might catch a beau and maybe get married. Don’t 
you ever hint about going to singing school to fool 
your time away trying to learn a thing that can’t be 
learned. That is a great scheme the young people 
have to try to get married by going to singing school. 
I warn you now that you had better not tell anyone 
that it is my fault that you don’t go, but you must tell 
them that there is no sense in round notes, and you 
don’t want to fool your time away with such nonsense. ” 
After Professor Hornbec had taught several les- 
sons I saw some of his scholars and they asked me why 
I did not come to singing school. • I told them that 
Aunt Letta would not let me come. They explained to 
me how easy it was to learn music. I told Letta that 
Ida Smith and others had told me that music was not 
hard to learn, and that I wished she would let me go. 
When I said this to her she grabbed an iron rod, more 
then three feet long and drew it over me, saying, ‘T 
will kill you if you repeat that again. I’ll break your 
head with this iron rod if you ever mention such a 
thing as singing school again. ” Before the singing 
school was out the young people learned that Letta 
would not let me attend them, so they agreed to tell 
the Professor that if he did not make Rastus pay our 
tuition, none of them would pay theirs. They did it 
because Letta treated me as she did. So the Profess- 
or came to see Rastus and presented the tuition ac- 
count to him for payment and to my surprise he paid it 
without having to be sued, for he always had to be 
sued for a debt. When Letta learned that the Pro- 
fessor had made Rastus pay his and my tuition she 


— los^ 

Was so angry she called him every vile name inlag- 
inable, but Rastus treated him very courteously, and 
invited him to take dinner with us and go duck hunt- 
ing with him that afternoon. Professor Hornbec ac- 
cepted the invitation and returned the complement by 
inviting Rastus to attend the concert in the evening. 
Rastus was very fond of music and as the Professor 
generally carried a violin with him, Rastus insisted 
on the Professor returning with him after the concert, 
and remaining all night, and give him some violin 
music. 

When dinner was announced Rastus and the Pro- 
fessor was still at the gate. Letta was so angry be- 
cause Rastus paid the account without being sued, 
that when Professor Hornbec came in with Rastus, 
that she would not give Rastus an opportunity to 
introduce them, and treated him with sullen contempt; 
The Professor took no notice of it however, and from 
her ignorant appearance, I suppose he thought she 
was only some old Irish Bridget, that Rastus had 
there for domestic purposes. 

When dinner was over, Rastus and the Professor 
started on the duck hunt, but before they left Ras- 
tus apprised her of the fact that the Professor would 
return with him after the concert was over and re- 
main all night. On hearing this Letta became more 
hostile then before, and declared her intention to in- 
sult him on his return. Rastus paid no attention to 
her threat, but went on duck hunting. She quarelled 
with me all the afternoon for having treated him civil 
vhile at the table She said she did not intend for 
him to gc in the parlor upon their return from the con- 
cert that evening. She said, ‘T intend to go to bed and 
when he comes you shall bring him in my bed room, 
and tell him I want to hear the violin.’' Letta’s object 
in so doing was that she might humilate me as she 
thought I would be afraid to disobey her, but I decided 
to fool her that time, as I would rather have been 


^ 164 - 

Whipped then to be mortilied in my feelings in that 
^ay. So after she went to bed that evening I slipped 
around and made a fire in the parlor and then kept a 
close lookout for him. Soon there was a rap at the 
door and opening it I saw it was the Professor. I lead 
him into the parlor. I asked him for his hat and coat 
as I presented a chair. Noth withstanding at that time 
I was a grown young lady, I had been abused and hu- 
miliated so severely by Letta and Rastus, from 10 
years of age and they had my nervous system so shat- 
terred that our inviting the Professor in the parlor 
against her orders that I actually trembled with fear, 
though I knew her mandate as to where I should con- 
duct him was rediculously wrong and for the purpose 
of humiliating me as well as to show her contempt for 
the Professor and that it was right to invite him in the 
parlor, and in that instant disobey her order. 

When Rastus came in he asked the Professor for 
some music and he entertained us on the violin for 
about an hour and when he was through Letta called 
me to her bed room saying, ‘/Didn’t I forbed you show- 
ing him into the parlor, how dare you disobey me. 
Why dedn’t you bring him in here? I will settle with 
you in the morning and I witl learn you to build a fire 
in the parlor for music teachers that go around and 
tell people that they can sing round notes and that 
music has keys to it and reading letters on a staff; no- 
body but a fool would listen to such lies as that, for a 
staff is only a cain like old people walk with. I happen 
to know what a staff is, as my father walked with a 
cane and he always called his cane a staff, and now 
that smart elick bobs up among a lot of donkeys and 
tells them that music is written on a staff and has keys. 
The bible says, “The fool and his money are easily 
parted,” and he has met a whole lot of fools here and 
has got their money.” Just then Rastus came in and 
said, “Letta, what is the matter with you now?” I 
told him that Letta was mad because I did not bring 


— 105 — 


the Professor in here instead of taking him in the par- 
lor. ‘‘Why Letta/' said he, “would you want him in 
here. Now that is pretty,— want a gentleman brought 
into your bedroom! Now arn’t you making a fool of 
yourself. ” Eastus then returned to the parlor and af- 
ter showing the Professor to bed retired and all was 
quiet the balance of the night. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Adie Bradly was eleven years old* when her mother 
died, and as her father was addicted to strong drink 
he lost all his property and was in such destitute cir- 
cumstances as to render him unable to provide for her 
and her little sister and brother, Maudie and Clarence. 
Letta was aware of their destitute condition, and as she 
had some suspicion that I would marry in spite of all 
her efforts to prohibit me, she thought to be sure of 
some one to fill my place. So she went to Mr. Bradly 
and asked him to let her have charge of Addie. “Now” 
said Letta to Joe Bradly, “if you will let me have 
Addie I will educate her, and as Vicky was my favorite 
sister I feel it my duty to look after the welfare of her 
children, and you know that you can’t keep house with 
them, and the best thing you can do is to divide the 
children between Mealia, Betsy Ann and myself. ” Joe 
at first hesitated as he did not know what would be the 
best thing for him to do. “You can’t leave them here 
alone nor you can’t take them with you when you are 
out on business” said Letta. Joe was thoroughly con- 
versant with his sister-in-law, Letta Readen’s avoricious 
and fiendish disposition and knowing that Vicky would 
not be happy in heaven if she knew he would place one 
of her orphan children in Letta’s charge. It was then 


—106— 


that Vicky’s words rang in his ears. The words she 
spoke while on her dying bed two days before she died. 
She called him to her bedside and putting her arms 
around his neck she said, ‘‘Joe, 1 am going to die and 
I have one request to make of you, my dear husband. 
Promise me this one thing as my last and dying request 
that you will never let Letta have any of our children, 
you know what a tyrant she is and what a slave she 
has made of poor Lou, who by the death of her moth- 
er, unfortunately fell in bad hands. As Lou is now 
grown, she will not stay with her much donger and it 
is likely that Letta will want another child that she 
can humiliate and enslave, and will make you any kind 
of a promise to get Adie or Maudie in her clutches. ” 
Letta discovered that Joe was a little intoxicated 
and thought it her best to do her most earnest pleading 
knowing that if he was inclined to yield at all he would 
be more apt to do so while under the influence of 
whiskey. Letta plead long and earnestly, and even 
forced tears to her eyes in order to reach his sympa- 
thies, but he was not so much intoxicated as not to 
have his presence of mind; but promised her that he 
would study about it. and see her again. When Letta 
was gone, Joe called Adie to him and asked her if she 
thought she would like to. live with her aunt Letta, 
“I would not like to make my home with aunt Letta 
long, but if you think it best for the present I will go 
and stay with her until you can provide a better place 
for me. ” So he decided to let Adie go to Letties for the 
present, but kept his intentions to himself, and Letta 
took Adie home with her, thinking she had another 
niece to enslave to fill Lou’s place, but when Letta got 
home with Adie, Rastad said to her: “I told you, you 
should not take any of Vickey’s children. Letta said to 
Rastus, “I think Lou is engaged to marry and will be 
out of our power soon, and if I can’t succeed in break- 
ing her engagement, and she marries, I want Adie to 
fill her place at work. 


— 107 — 


^ ‘Fill Lou*s place at work” said Rastus, ‘'indeed 
you shall not take another girl here to do work that 
you ought to do yourself. You shall not keep Adie. 
When Lou is gone you shall do the work yourself.” 
But Letta over powered Rastus, and kept Adie. And 
as previously stated she thought she had a deed to the 
place and property, she told Rastus that she would 
give him to understand that he had no more power on 
that farm than the horse that pulled the plow. Rastus 
knew the place was mortgaged by his brother James 
for all it was worth, and when the mortgage fell due, 
Letta would then look up her deed and find it subject 
to the mortgage, she would then set her tune to a loud- 
er key. So he thought he would submit for the present. 

Letta’s next move was to persuade Adie’s father to 
let her take Adie’s mother’s household goods, and store 
them at her house. She suggested to Joe that he move 
his household goods to her house as she would allow 
him to store them free of rent. Joe became more dis- 
ipated after Vicky’s death and spent every cent of 
money that he could get for whiskey, and was consid- 
erably under the influence of the monster when Letta 
made him that offer. He told her that he would break 
up housekeeping and store such things as he might 
need when he got better settled. Letta offered him 
the use of a wagon and team to haul his goods. Joe 
accepted the proposition and moved everything he had 
in the line of household goods to Letta’s house for 
storage. When all was moved Letta hired a colored 
woman to wash the bed clothing and wearing apparel 
and made Joe pay the wash bill. After this was done 
Letta took all of the children’^ clothes and all his 
sheets and pillow slips and even took his feather beds, 
and crowded all the featliers into one tick, and then 
she cut everything up and made carpet rags of them. 
Among the things was the clothing that Vicky’s two 
little sons, that were dead, had worn. When Adie dis- 
covered the clothes of her little brothers she said. 


^^108 


•‘Aunt Letta you must not make carpet rags of these 
clothes for they were little Claudie’s and Charlie's and 
mamma has kept them sacred every since their death. 
1 know she would not be happy now if she knew they 
were made into carpet rags Now do please let me put 
them away, just to remember them by and for the re- 
spect sister and I have for our poor dead mamma and 
little dead brothers.” “Why I will pay for them” said 
Letta. “No I [don’t w^ant pay, I want to keep the 
clothes and if you tear them into carpet rags I will tell 
papa. ” said Adie. Letta then promised Adie that she 
would not make the clothes into carpet rags, but in 
order to get the clothes made into carpet rags she told 
Adie she might go and spend the day with Miss Dora 
Meyer. As soon as Adie was gone, Letta cut the little 
clothes and made carpet rags of them. She then told 
me that if I ever told Adie she would give me trouble. 
She then took the fragments and put them inja barrel, 
and when Adie came home she told her that if she 
would gather and save up all the old papers, rags and 
old iron that she could find, and put them in a barrel, 
she might sell them when a man came that would buy 
them, and by those means she would have a little 
spending money for herself. “Very well,” said Adie, 
“I will save all I can find, but where are those little 
clothes of my little brothers?” “Oh, I put them away 
for you” Letta replied, “you need not worry about 
them, they are all right.” Adie being only a child, and 
not knowing what a demon Letta was, supposed she 
told the truth, therefore she said nothing more about 
them. 

As I had been under her tyrant iron will and know- 
ing it would only make matters worse to tell Adie, I 
said nothing to her about the clothes. As Adie was 
very anxious to get a little money to spend, she took a 
great deal of pains to gather all the old iron, paper and 
rags that she could possibly get hold of and soon had 
the barrel filled. It happened that a man came by 


— 109 ^- 

after them when Adie was not at home, but Letta sold 
them and put the money in her own pocket. So when 
Adie came home and learned that Letta sold them, she 
asked her for the money for them. Letta answered 
her saying she did not intend to give her the money. 
“Why aunt Letta you promised me I might have the 
money.” said Adie. “Don’t you sass me, you little im- 
pudent pauper!” Adie began to cry, and Letta storm- 
ed out at her saying, “dry up or I will kill you.” “No 
you won’t kill me,” said Adie, and I intend to tell papa 
hew you have treated me, and what is more I will not 
gather anymore rags for you.” Letta then sneaked 
away and when she got where she thought Adie could 
not hear her she said, “I will not keep that mean little 
rip, if she continues to sass me in this way and threat- 
ens to tell her old drunken dady on me. I will ship 
her, and if I find Lou will marry I will get Maudie and if 
I can succeed in preventing Lou from marrying, I will 
make her do the work as long as I can succeed in 
keeping her and I intend to do everything in my power 
to break her and Dickerson up, and if Ido succeed, she 
is not likely to have another chance soon. I will not 
be bothered with Adie as long as her old daddy is 
around. 

After taking a second consideration however, Letta 
thought to make it up with Adie as her father had 
been talking of leaving Missouri and was liable to go 
out West at any time. So if Adie’s father went West 
she would then tighten the reins on her, as she said, for 
Adie would then have no one to protect her, and she 
would not be afraid to beat her at any time she dared 
to open her mouth to say a word back to her. So she 
called Adie to her and said, “Adie I want to talk to 
you but you must not tell anybody anything I tell you 
except Lou. Now listen to me, I love you and I want 
to see you do well. I want you and Lou to stay with 
me and be good and work, and if you will stay the 
balance of my life, and work, and when Rastus gets all 


■ 110 — 


his debts payed, I will make my will and divide my 
property between you and Lou and Johnny. I have 
some very valuable things to divide with you and Lou.’’ 
Adie was pleased to learn that Aunt Letta would re- 
member her in her last will, and the first chance she 
got she told me about aunt Letta’s intention of making 
her will and when Adie got through relating her storj 
about Aunt Letta’s will, I told her that by the time she 
had learned Letta and knew her as well as I did she 
would not than believe anything she says. I told 
her that it was only a scheme she had fitted up to tell 
her to get her to stay and when she had worked her 
almost to death and ruined her health at she had mine, 
she would not give her anything. She will do just as 
she has been doing. For instance, sometime ago Ras- 
tus had two shoats that were sick, and gave them to 
me to take care of, with the promise that I might have 
one-half of the money they sold for. So I took good 
care of them and finally they got well. But I took 
care of them after they were well and when they were 
full grown, the hog cholera broke out among the hogs, 
and one of them sickened and died. I kept the other 
and took care of it, and when the time came to put it 
on the market it w^as the fattest hog I had ever seen, 
and sold for fifteen dollars. When I wanted my share 
she said to me, ‘‘you have no share in this, and threat- 
ened to kill me for wanting to claim my right in the 
hog. 

On another occasion she promised me one-third of 
all the butter, eggs and chickens that we had that 
year and I worked harder than any slave even worked 
and at the end of the year I reminded her of her prom- 
ise. She lied fiatly out of it and drew an iron rod over 
my head and threatened to crush my brains out if I 
dared to speak of it again. In another instance when 
she was sick with malarie fever last fall, she told me 
if I would take care of and dry all off the fallen apples 
she would give me one-half of the money when she 


-Ill- 

sold them. Notwithstanding she was sick and I sat 
lip at night with her and did all the work during the 
day I gathered and pealed and dried all the apples that 
fell and when she sold them they brought six dollars, 
and she would not give me one cent, but abused me 
with vile and indecent language. There are many 
other instances too numerous too mention in which she 
did the same kind of dishonest tricks and I told Adie 
she would treat her the same if she got a chance, and 
so far as Rastus paying his honest debts, that is some- 
thing he would never do. His note is not worth two 
cents on the dollar and his word is worth nothing, and 
Letta is a great deal worse than he is for she causes 
him to do a great many mean things that he would 
not otherwise do. 

A few days latter Letta made the same proposition 
to me, Adie and I were to work for her the remainder 
of her life for an interest in her- effects. To encourage 
us she said she did not think she would live more then 
ten years, and a few days later thought to further in- 
duce us to stay, she made a will, but did not allow us 
to see it. By watching 1 found out where she had it 
hid and when I got an opportunity I read it. Her will 
read like this: “This is my last will and testament, I 
bequeath to my son John all my lands and personal 
property, including all stock and household 
goods, silverware and sewing machine. I bequeath to 
my niece Lucy Pierce, one white petticoat with home- 
made lace around the bottom of it. And one chemise 
with one pearl button on the band, and home insertion 
on the sleeves. I bequeath to my niece, Adie Brady, 
one gray cotton petticoat with a brass button on the 
band, and one cotton nightgown, with home-made lace 
around the wrist bands. These I bequeath to them on 
condition that they remain with me and work for me 
according to my volition until I die a natural death. 
And if either of them should get married, or seek home 
and shelter elsewhere during my life they shall not in- 


— 112 — 

herit anything from my estate.’’ This will was written 
in the year 1882 and she is alive now in the year 1900, 
and has perfect health. She is only fifty-eight years 
old and bids fair to live fifteen or twenty years more. 
Now we will add twenty years more to eighteen that 
she has lived since 1882, the time she willed me the al- 
most worn out i^etticoat with home-made lace at the 
lower end, and chemise with a pearl button on. 

As the chemise was as baldy worn as the petticoat 
we will value the two garments at $1 which any body 
would object to paying, and we will fix the price of 
the gray cotton petticoat with the brass button and 
night gown that she villed to Adie at fifty cents. She 
told us that she would will me the most as I had 
been with her twelve years. 

Now as I had already been a servant for her 
twelve years, we will add the twelve years to the 
eighteen years she has lived since 1882 and we com- 
pute thirty years and if the petticoat and chemise had 
not grown threadbare in the eighteen years ware, and 
she was to die tomorrow, and the petticoat and 
chemise was worth $1, I would have three and one- 
third cents per year for my thirty years servitude for 
waiting on an idiot. As previous stated she is still 
living and in good health and 58 years old, and like all 
other low principled donkeys she will live more than 
twenty years more if she can just to be a nuisance in 
the world, then calculate if you can how many cents 
per year would I have earned, and as my sole object in 
writing this book is to open the eyes of people in re- 
gard to whose care they place their children. I hope 
you will excuse me when I again warn you to look out 
for wolves in sheep’s clothing for fear you let them 
into the hands of a Letta or Rastus. 


— 113 — 


CHAPTER XX. 


Rastus was very cautious in trying to prevent 
Letta from learning of the mortgage on the farm on 
which she held a deed, no matter how much she 
humiliated him by reminding him that he had no home 
and he never once dropped a word to arouse her sus- 
picion of the mortgage, his brother James had put on 
the farm before he gave a deed to her, and he always 
made a show of his money, what little he had on hand, 
by spending it freely with any peddler or agent that 
happened to come along. His object in so doing was 
to keep up the appearance of having plenty money 
before the public in general, and when ever there 
happened to be a public sale of any description in the 
country around, he alw^ays attended and bought all the 
old plunder that was put up for sale if he possibly 
could get hold of any money. Letta never made any 
objections to his buying anything as long as he did 
not pay for it and was willing for him to borrow any 
amount of money he wanted, provided he could get 
it so as the loaner could not collect it, and when he 
went to a sale he usually had a dollar or so, in his 
pocket and when he spent that he would step around 
to some of his acquaintances and ask them ior the loan 
of a little money with the promise to pay it back in a 
few days. 

On one occasion be went to a sale over on Salt 
River and there bouglit an. old Avash stand, one tin 
dipper, one bed stead, one pint cup, one hatchet, one 
water bucket, one set tea cups and saucers, one dish 


— 114 — 


pan, two chairs and two bnshels of dried beans, and all 
this trumpery, including the dried beans, he only paid 
one dollar, the beans were several years old, and none 
of them were sound and many were half rotten and 
they were a mixture of colored beans and by no means 
fit to cook. After we had had these beans on hand for 
over a year there was a failure in the bean crop and 
Letta had some of these beans cooked but we could not 
eat them. Then Letta hinted around that she had beans 
for sale and Mrs. Dollmon, one of our neighbors, heard 
that Letta had beans for sale, called and purchased a 
peck of the beans from Letta and asked her the price of 
them and Letta told her that she was willing to take 
whatever beans are selling at in the market. Mrs. 
Dollmon said that if Letta was willing she would in- 
quire in town, and pay the market price, which was 
agreed to by Letta. Mrs. Dollmon took the beans 
home and cooked some of them, and found they were 
rotten, and was then conversant of the fraud Letta 
knowingly perpertrated upon her, but the amount’ would 
be so small as she had only got a peck. She was too 
intelligent to say anything about it, but she inquired of 
a merchant the price of mixed beans, and the merchant 
told her there was no market for mixed beans, which 
left Mrs. Dollmon without an answer, but the merchant 
told her that the price of navy beans was fifty cents, 
but on account of a short crop they would range at 
times up to seventy-five cents, which Mrs. Dollmon 
knew would make a little over 12 cents she would owe 
Letta, if the beans had been sound. 

Soon thereafter Letta ordered me to prepare car- 
pet chains in the loom, to w^eave into carpet the rags 
she had so cruelly robed her little orphan nieces, Adie 
andMaudie. In arranging the carpet in the loom, 
there was not enough of carpet chain to weave 100 
yards of carpet, as she supposed she had that much of 
the children’s clothes and bed clothes. As it was but a 
short distance she went to Mrs. Dollman’s and got of 




her carpet chain enough to make out the amount she 
lacked, which she told Mrs. Dollman was worth about 
ten cents and that she would take it on the beans. Mrs. 
Dolland supposed the beans were settled for, and 
some time there after she and her husband were going 
to move to Montana. Letta hearing that Mrs, Dollman 
was preparing to move to Montana sent me to tell her 
to send Letta fifty cents for the beans. I went and 
told Mrs. Dollman that Letta had said to send her fifty 
cents for the beans. 

Mrs. Dollman said ‘‘I would have settled it before 
now, but I understood Letta that the carpet chain set- 
tled it. I inquired in the market and there was no 
market for mixed beans and that the best beans were 
seventy five cents a bushel and at that ten cents in 
carpet chain paid the bill.” She said, ‘‘we could not 
eat the beans. ” But she handed me twenty five cents 
and said she hope that will be satisfactory. When I 
arrived at the gate on my return Letta met me and 
asked me if I had the fifty cents. I answered her that 
Mrs. Dollman said she thought you said the carpet 
chain settled the bill, and said she hoped twenty-five 
cents would be satisfactory. Letta called Mrs. Doll- 
man all the vile names she could think of (and she 
can think of more vile names to call anybody then she 
can think of decent words in prayer.) She ordered me 
to go back and tell Mrs. Dollman all the vile names 
she called her and get the other twenty five cents. I 
told her I would not go, and that she knew the beans 
were rotten. She then drew a large rod over my head 
and told me to go or she would kill me, but as I was 
grown she was afraid to strike me. She then turned 
on Adie, who was then only eleven years old, and told 
her to go and tell Mrs. Dollman as she had told me. 
Adie refused to go and carry such language and after 
all her threats she would not go. She then threatened 
her son Johnny and tried to force him to carry the 
filthy and abusive language, but Johnnie said, “Ma I 




had rather die than carry such language as that to 
such a fine lady as Mrs. Dollman and I am going to 
tell papa when he comes home tonight all about how 
you have been talking about Mrs. Dollman and trying 
to make us go and tell it to her.'’ 

At the supper table Johnie told his father that his 
mother had been calling Mrs Dollman all the bad 
names and said, ‘^Pa, if I was to tell you what she 
called her you would whip me for using such bad 
words.” Rastus then turned to Letta and said, “Letta 
what do you mean by such conduct as this? Why, you 
should be ashamed of yourself to set such an example 
before these children as to try to force them to use vile 
and indecent language as that to one of the most refined 
ladies- in the community. You should never have 
charged her anything for the old rotten beans, and now 
after she has already paid you four times the worth of 
good beans you still persist in collecting still more from 
her, and because Lou or Adie won’t go to her with the 
most vile language from you, you try to force our only 
child that you ought never to let here anything but the 
most chased expressions. You are so vile and brutish 
as to threaten to make him go to her with language he 
thinks ought to elicit a whipping if he would even dare 
to repeat to me. I am exceedingly ashamed of you, to 
think that I have to claim such a brute for a wife 
and the mother of my only child, is perfectly heart 
rending to me. And on Sunday mornings at your re- 
quest I have been holding family worship with the 
hope that you would try and forsake your wicked ways 
and try to be a Christian, but instead you have grown 
so much worse as to try to send indecent and abusive 
language to our most refined neighbor, when you 
should have told her in the out set that they were rot- 
ten, and thad we could not eat them.” 

Letta answered him by saying, “you old fool! It 
is you that is no Christian, for the bible says, ‘If ye 
have anything that is not fit- to eat youself. sell it to 


your neighbor and let him eat it.’ That is just what 1 
did and if Mrs. Dollman is Senator Corall’s daughter, 
and the wife of a Colonel in the late civil war, she is 
no better than any of our other neighbors. So now' 
Rastus just let me lell you I w^ant to hear no more of 
your bazoon and if I do I will show you who owns this 
farm and at the same time you will have an opportuni- 
ty of finding quarters under some other shelter.” Ras- 
tus knew, but did not dare to tell her that she as good 
as had no farm, as the time was drawing near wdien the 
mortgage w^ould be closed, so he paid no attention to 
her threat of giving him an opportunity of sheltering 
elsewhere, but said, ‘‘now ain’t this a nice state of af- 
fairs selling beans to our neighbors and says the bible 
tells you to do it. Now just show me one passage of 
Scripture where the bible tells us to sell rotten beans 
to our neighbors.” She answered by saying, “Rastus, 
this proves that you know nothing about Scripture, I 
have often noticed in your long, lond and tremulous 
prayers that there was not a w^ord of Scripture in them 
and now you ask me to show you a passage of Scrip- 
ture that as loud a praying Christian hypocrite as you 
are, ought to be perfectly familiar with”. Then said 
Rastus to Johnny, “you stay here until I go out to tl:e 
barn and see if the horse I road is all right, I road 
him hard, and he may be sick. ” 

When Rastus returned from the barn he said, ‘ ‘well 
Letta I know now why yon make such a fool of your 
self and try to send Lou and Adie and even Johnny to 
carry such vile and indecent language to Helen Doll- 
man. You have been persuing about the barn, and 
found the jug of whiskey that Jack had hid out there 
to keep you from drinking it. The jug is dry now, and 
I know you are the one that has drank it, for Jack left 
it half full this morning, and now it is empty. It is a 
plain case. It was whiskey and not the bible that 
promi^ted you to charge four prices for those beans. 
Well this is the first time I ever heard whiskey called 


— iis— 

the bible.” ^ ‘How do yon know the jug is empty?'’ 
asked Letta* Rastus said he noticed the cork was out 
of the jug. She asked him how he happened to seethe 
cork was out but Rastus said he was not blind and he 
did not have to drink whiskey every time he saw a jug. 


CHAPTER XXI; 


‘ T don’t care for expenses, ” said Rastus, ‘ ‘as long 
as I can borrow money and I intend to have a good 
time if my debts are never paid, and as Pap and others 
are going to Butler county on a hunting expidition, and 
I shall go too as it will only cost me fifty dollars for the 
round trip and all expenses included; there is nothing 
like having a good time; so I will go and enjoy myself, 
and as for my creditors, I will let them do the worrying; 
my board will not cost me anything while I am there 
for I will stop with Hugh and Kate as they are my re- 
lations, I know they will not charge me for my board.” 
Rastus appears to have forgotten the time his brother 
James ruined his cousin Hughs daughter Mary Cellen, 
and he took such an active part in helping James trans- 
fer his property when Hugh talked about prosecuting 
him for damages. However he made the trip and re- 
mained with Hugh and Kate six or seven ^eeks and 
when he was ready to return home he invited their 
daughter Zeala to come home with him. Zeala ac- 
cepted the invitation and when she was ready to start 
her mother told her she must visit with Letta and 
Rastus at least a week, for the sake of courtesy, and 
then divide her time and visits among the balance of 
her relations. When Zeala had been with us two days 




Letta began to begrudge what she eat and to treat her 
cooly, and on the third day she asked Zeala if she 
would like to go and visit Miss Rhoda Sweeden, and 
Zeala told her that she intended to visit Miss Rhoda 
before returning home. Zeala was only sixteen years 
old and had a good disposition and never once thought 
of Letta wan ting to get rid of her and had no idea there 
was as low and mean a principled being on earth as 
Letta was, and for that reason she took no exception 
to Lettas asking her if she would like to go and visit 
Miss Sweeden. Every time Letta could get an opper- 
tunity to speak to me when Zeala could not hear it, she 
would say to me, ‘‘I want Zeala to leave here; I am 
tired of her eating my grub, and I want you to quit 
treating her so nicely, as I want her to go.^’ She spoke 
to me in this way several times regarding Zealas stay 
before I made any reply to her, as I had always re- 
frained from answering her when I considered she was 
in the wrong from the fact that 1 knew she was cold, 
selfish and illiberal in her views and possessed but 
little talent and a physiognomy of large self will and 
her stubbornness could not be excelled and I knew to 
try to reason with her would only add fuel to the 
flames, but as she continued to annoy me every time 
she thought she would not be heard by Zeala. I finally 
ventured to tell her that Zeala had told me that her 
mother had told her to spend at least a week with us, 
as Rastus had been with them six weeks, and invited 
her to return with him and visit us and make his house 
her home and from there visit with the rest of her 
relatives. At this she became furious and said to me, 
‘^She shall not stay here a week and eat my grub if 
Rastus did stay at her father’s six weeks, but she 
needn’t think she will get even with him bj coming 
here and eating my grub, and Rastus had no right to 
invite her here. He would not care if she stayed here 
’till she eats up all of my grub. This is my farm and 
Rastus has no home to invite anybody to come and 


-- 120 — 

Btay a whole week. I intend to send her away to- 
morrow if she don’t leave of her own accord.” The 
next day was the fourth day of her stay and as“soon*as 
breakfast was over Letta said to her, ‘‘Zeala do you 
want to go down to Rhoda Sweeden’s today.” ‘‘No I 
don’t want to go down there this week; I w^ant to visit 
the people around here before I go down there,” said 
Zeala. “Well I think you had better go,” said Letta, 
“as you can have a horse to ride today, and this is the 
only day the horses will be idle.” Oh! that doesn’t 
make any difference as I can walk,” said Zeala. “Well 
now you had better go when you can ride as it is too 
far for you to walk,” said Letta. “Oh no it is not, I 
walk farther than that lots of times and I don’t mind 
walking that distance,” said Zeala. “Well it will wear 
your shoes too much,” said Letta. “That don’t matter 
as I have an old pair I can wear,” said Zeala. Letta 
was then dumbfounded as to what to say to her next, 
and left the room and went out in the back yard and 
yelled to me to come out there. When I went out to 
where she was she said to me, “Why don’t you give 
her a hint to go; I believe you want her to stay, for I 
can see how nice you are toward her, now if you don’t 
get her to go you shall pay her board. When we went 
into the house Letta said, “Zeala you had better go 
down to Rhoda Sweedens for it is going to rain to 
night, and after a hard rain the road will be so muddy 
that you can’t travel over them at all. ” To my relief 
Zeala consented to go and when she was gone Letta 
said to me, “Now don’t you dare to tell Rastus about me 
making Zeala leave, and I didn’t want her here eating 
my grub any longer. 

Zeala remained away a week or ten days. She re- 
turned because she had not visited her relatives in that 
vicinity and when Letta saw her coming she said, 
“Now here comes that Zeala back here. I suppose 
she intends to stay around here and eat off of me again 
but I’ll veto that so she shan’t eat supper here. ’* When 


— 121 — 


Zeala came to the house, Letta asked her If she was 
going over to her grandmothers. Zeala looked as if 
she felt as though she were not welcomed. She said 
she would like to go that afternoon or the next morn- 
ing. ‘‘Well,” said Letta, “Lou can take you there 
this afternoon, but she can’t go tomorrow.” Then 
she called me away and ordered me to saddle old Bell 
and Fanny and take Zeala to her grandmother’s. I 
saddled the horses and went with her, as ordered. It 
was five miles and over the worst road lever travelled. 

On my return home I had to lead one of the horses 
and in one place I went down into a gulch to water the 
horses, and when I turned to come out of the gulch the 
halter of the horse I was leading got roped around my 
arm and the horse stopped. I could not stop the 
horse I was riding so I was pulled off. I thought my 
time to quit this world had come, for the horse I was 
riding had never been known to fail to kick everything 
to pieces that touched him about the heels, but in that 
case Providence provided for me When I was dragged 
down behind him he stood perfectly still, until I could 
extricate myself. I then lead the horses out of the 
gulch and to a place that I could again get back into 
the saddle. As I got home it was dark and Letta was 
still waiting for me to come home to prepare supper. 
Letta said, “now I have worked that Zeala off the sec- 
pifd time and I hope she will not return. I don’t want 
any poor people hanging around me and eating up my 
grub and not paying for it. I don’t care if they are 
kin people. Just to think that while she was here we 
ate a half gallon of tomatoes and a whole head of cab- 
bage, and two dozen tomatoes that I could have sold 
for money. Now just think of the idea! A girl stay- 
ing around among her kin folks, and so stuck up that 
she won't drink butter milk or eat apples, either mpl- 
I'ow or fresh off the tree. I hauded l>oth tolier onernorn' 
ing at the l)reakfast table and she refused them. I 
>suppose slie thought apides and buttermilk, were ^J:oo 
plentyf ul an4 coi>sequeutl,y too cheap for her to eat’\ 


■ 122 — 


CHAPTER XXII 


I can say with a clear conscience that Letta and 
Rastus treated me worse than slave holders ever treat- 
ed their negroes when in bondage. Negroes were al- 
lowed holidays and were usually given Saturday after- 
noon in which to enjoy themselves. If any of them 
were sick they were properly nursed. I was never al- 
lowed holidays, not even Christmas day. But on the 
other hand they exercised their tyrannical power by 
enforcing me to do an extra amount of work on every 
Christmas day. They made it a rule to save up a large 
washing to be done on that day. No matter what day 
in the week Christmas came on, unless it happened to 
come on Sunday, Rastus and Letta always went out to 
Christmas dinner, and I was always invited as I was 
supposed to be one of the family. I was never allowed 
to accept any invitations. The first words that Letta 
usually spoke to me Christmas morning was, ‘‘Lou 
hurry up and get breakfast, so you can go to washing. 
You will have all the stock to feed and water at noon, 
as all the hired hands are gone. Rastus and I are go- 
ing out to dine. ’’ So I had to stay at home and do a 
heavy days washing, and then scrub the kitchen floor, 
and at noon I had to feed from one to three hundred 
hogs, and from ten to fifteen head of horses, and look 
after and feed from two to three hundred head of chick- 
ens, geese, ducks, pea fowls, turkeys and guineas, and 
they even kept five or six dogs, that I had to feed. 
And then I had to continue my washing until I finished 
it. Besides I had to feed and milk from twelve to fif- 
teen cows, twice a day and churn, by hand, from five to 
six gallons of cream and then wash and take care of 
the milk vessels. And then I had to prepare supper 


— 123 — 


for Letta, Rastus and several of the hired hands that 
would be back for supper. Letta was never known to 
help me cook or prepare a meal. 

Now let me humbly ask the reader if I did not 
have a hard task? And especially on Christmas days. 
If you doubt the above statements and will write to me 
I will give you references that will answer you sub- 
stantiating the facts. I had to do such a days work 
about once a week, when it was wash day, but when 
the hired hands were home they generally done the 
feeding of the horses and hogs. I had all the balance 
of the above w^ork to do, and feed the milk cows and 
poultry. And the same task for every day in the 
week except washing day. Then is it surprising to 
anybody that when I married and left them I was so 
afflicted from exposer and overwork, that for a year 
before I left them 1 had to prop myself up in bed at 
night, to be able to breathe? 

During my stay and servitude, of twelve years 
neither Rastus nor Letta had given me one of cent 
money. Letta never gave me a present of any kind. 
The only present Rastus ever gave me wms a small 
glass mug, on one Christmas, when he bought two 
and gave Letta one and the other one to me. Letta 
was never willing for me to learn anything more than 
drudgery work. Even when I picked up a newspaper 
to try to read she always grabbed it from me or vrould 
storm at me saying, -^Put that paper down and get to 
work and stop fooling your time away trying to read. 
Ther^is no sense in poor people wasting their time 
reading. Education is w^orthless to anybody except 
teachers.” I was very anxious to obtain an education 
but I was so trampled down by she and Rastus, that I 
had no power within myself to defie them and avail 
myself of protection. 

I at one time told Letta that I wanted a grammar 
to study, as I realized that I was deficient in language 
to properly express my ideas. She ansv/ered me say- 


124 


ing, ‘^you shall not study grammar. There is no sense 
in it I studied grammar from the time I was six years 
old, until I was sixteen , and I didn’t know any more 
about it when I finished school than I did before I ever 
went to school. Grammar was gotten up by men to 
sell, to make money from. There are always some 
rascals springing up something to sell the fools and 
there always will be fools to buy. Nobody needs gram- 
mar to learn to talk. It is natural to talk. Hogs 
grunt and squeal, horses neigh, and mules bray and 
dogs dark and they don’t study grammar. Now can’t 
you see that grammar was only got up to get people’s 
money away from them. No you cannot have a gram- 
mar and don’t you let me hear another vord about it.” 

Another time I w^anted to study geography and as 
Rastus was going to town I asked him to buy one for 
me. I told him that he had promised to educate me, 
and as long as he would not let me go to school 1 
would like to learn a little at home. He got the geog- 
raphy for me and when he returned home he laid it on 
the table among other things that he had bought. 
When Letta discovered it she picked it up and asked 
what it was. Rastus told her that it was a geography 
for me. She said, ‘‘now do you intend to let her fool 
her time away studying geography? I intend to send it 
right back. She shall not have it.” She then came 
and began to abuse me for having asked for it. She 
said, “you shan’t fool a minute of your time away learn- 
ing geography. I taught school before I w^as married, 
and I never knew anything about geography or gram- 
mar. When anybody knows as much as I do they 
know enough. When I taught school they used Web- 
sters spelling book, and McGuffy’s reader, and Ray's 
arithmetic. When anybody can read in the fourth 
reader tha^t is enough for anybody to read at school, 
and when the^^ get to long division tlu|t is enough in 
arithmetic. That is as far as I ever got ih arithgietic. 


— 125 — 

and when any of the children got to long division 1 
turned them back. 

Letta never liked to admit that anybody knew 
more then she did notwithstanding she said there was 
no one on earth that could learn to read round notes 
and that they were only intended to be used on an in- 
stument. When she heard that her sister-in-law had 
bought an organ she said it w^as strange that people 
who pretended to have half-sense w^ould fool their mon- 
ey away buying such a thing as an organ while common 
sense would teach any fool that no one could play a 
tune on one of those things. ^‘Now, said she, “there 
are more fools in this section of the country than there 
are in any other portion of the World. It is a fine 
thing the fool killer has never been around or he 
would come here with a double-geared fool-killing 
machine. And just to think that uncle Lafe was fool 
enough to buy his daughter Paty Belle an organ. And 
I know she has a white elephant on her hands. For 
she can’t learn to play a tune on such a machine as 
that. Instrumental music is something that can’t be 
learned for they used round notes in playing on an 
organ and they all look exactly alike. I am afraid the 
fool killer will hear of this settlement and leave us 
without neighbors. Finaly her sister-in-law, Mrs. 
Role, invited her to come and spent the afternoon with 
her. Letta accepted the invitation and while there 
she heard Mrs. Role play several tunes on the organ. 
And soon thereafter she heard several of her neighbors 
play on their organs. 

And finally she said, “Well it is a little strange 
to me, but they actually play tunes with round notes.” 
“Now” said she, “Rastus I can’t afford to let all our 
neighbors and girls in this country be that far ahead 
of m< 3 . You know that I am the smartest woman that 
you ever saw if not the superior to any woman in the 
world and you’ve got to get me an organ.” Rastus 
asked her if she wasn’t afraid the fool-killer would hear 


of that settlement and come there with a one-fool, sin- 
gle-geared machine and leave him without a wife. 
“Well, but Rastus,” said she, ‘‘Mrs. Role showed me 
how to run do, ra, mi, fa, sol, la, on the organ and 
since she showed me that I have caught on to a new 
idea. When you get me an organ I will show these 
monkey heads around here that I can learn so fast that 
I will soon be away ahead of them. " She said she 
would get the Louisiana Journal, and cut the letters 
out of it that she wanted. She said that she knew D 
stood for do and R. for ra and M stands for me. At 
her saying M. stands for me, Rastus yelled out that 
he would like to know how in thunder M. stood for 
her, “Well, now Rastus, don’t be so fast” she said, 
“you just listen to me a little. There is a note called 
me, and I will put the letter M on that note that stands 
for me, and I am going to put them letters on those 
white things that they put their fingers on. Then I 
will know where to play the tunes I want to play." 
Finally Rastus told her that he would give her a cow 
that she could sell and get an organ. 

At that very time if they could have paid their 
honest debts they would not have had a dollar left. 
At that time they owed me $50 but Letta plainly told 
Rastus he should never pay me. She called me the 
most vile and indecent names because I wanted my 
money. The next time Letta saw Mrs. Roles she told 
her that she had decided to buy an organ. Mrs. Role 
told her that she could buy a second hand organ from 
the Methodist minister’s wife in Lousiana, So Letta 
lost no time until she saw the lady and asked her 
if she had an organ for sale. Mrs Leadbetter said she 
wanted to sell her organ and buy a good milch cow. 
Letta told her that she had several fine milch cows and 
would be willing to give her one for the organ. Mrs. 
Leadbeter consented to this agreement, so the next day 
Letta sent for the organ and then sent the cow. 
The preacher decided not to mdk the cow until 


— 127 — 

morning as she had been driven seven or eight miles 
from Rastus house to his place. The next morning 
the preacher went to the lot with his milk bucket. 
This cow was small and nobody but myself could milk 
her and I always had to hem her in one corner of the 
fence where I could put a rail up to keep her there 
while milking. She only gave two quarts of milk per 
day and when I would get nearly done milking her she 
would kick the milk cup out of my hand. The preach- 
er thought the cow was only shy of him as he was a 
stranger to her. He soon thought of the idea of hem- 
ming her in a corner so he could put up a rail and con- 
fine her there. He then proceeded to milk her and he 
said that just about the time he got nearly all the milk 
he could get, which, he said, was about a pint, she 
kicked the milk cup over his head and spilt the milk 
on his $30 suit of clothes that his members had given 
him. When the milk cup went over his head it knock- 
ed his hat off and the cow stepped in it, cutting several 
holes through it with her sharp hoofs. She kicked 
him five times before he could get out of her way and 
at the same time tore several holes in his new breeches 
and she kicked the skin off of him in three places. 
She also hit him on the knee and made him lame so that 
he had to use a cane for a week. They turned the cow 
out and let her go back to Letta’s place. 

The preachers ’s wife soon made it convenient to 
see Letta, and told her she had acted in bad faith. 
That the cow she should have given was to have been 
a good milk cow, but this cow gave but little milk and 
was a dangerous cow to milk. “Now,” said she, “you 
must pay me for the organ or bring it back, I could 
have sold it for cash but I thought I would accomodate 
you by trading with you, but as you have acted so un* 
lady like as to impose a fraud upon me, I demand the 
return of the organ or the money. Letta agreed to 
pay for the organ, provided she would take the money 
p installments. The minister’s wife consented to do 


• 120 — 


so and Letta paid her a little money at a time until she 
had paid the full amount which was twenty-five dollars. 

During this time Letta had cut letters from the 
Louisiana Journal and pasted them on the C scale on 
the organ, placing D. on C. , R on D and M on E and 
F in its proper place, and S on G, L on A and C on B. 
She then ran her fingers over the octave saying, do, 
ra, me, fa, so, la, se, do. She did not know what the 
sharps and flats were for but thought they were used 
to let air in the organ. Letta spent the most of her 
1 ime playing the organ. She tried to learn some of 
the old tunes she heard her father sing during his life. 
Whenever she saw any person coming from either end 
of the road that she knew would pass the house, she 
would run and sit by the organ and sing and play, do, 
do, do, me, me, sol, sol, do, just as loud as she could 
yell, and whenever there w^ere any men around the 
house she tried to entertain them by making all the 
noise she could on the organ. Rastus was so proud 
that his wife could, as he thought, play the organ, he 
invited Mr. Graphen, a Methodist minister, to come 
and hear her sing and perform on the organ. Rastus 
did not know any more about music then Letta, conse- 
quently he thought she was up to date in music and 
was anxious to have Mr. Graphen make them a visit 
and hear her play. Finally Mr. Graphen made them a 
visit one afternoon and remained over night. After 
supper they asked him to sing with them. The song 
was selected and Letta began to play on the organ. 
Mr. Graphen who was an educated man that had been 
raised it the city, knew something about music. He 
and Rastus started to sing the words while Letta be- 
gan do, do, do, me, me, me, sol, sol, sol, se, se, se, la, 
la, se, do. 

It is no use to try to tell how queer Mr. Graphen 
looked at Letta and then at Rastus, as he lost track of 
the tune as well as the words. He didn’t seem to know 
if she was trying to play Old Hundred or Yankee 


— 129 — 

Boodle and he finaly said, “Sister Readen, I can't sing 
that way, I guess you have got a different way of sing- 
ing and playing here to what I have been accustomed 
to. • Suppose we try something that we are all familiar 
with.'’ Letta ffnaly found one that she said she Avas 
familiar with and sounded the organ. Rev. Graphen 
started the words as before and Rastus was de- 
termined that the tune should not break down that 
time. He thought to sing loud was the way to be sure 
of success, so Rastus started in two or three notes 
higher than the Rev. Graphen and Letta began on the 
organ, do, do, do, me, me, me, sol, sol, se, se, do. The 
Rev. Graphen lost track of tune and words sooner than 
before and he looked at Rastus and then at Letta and 
said, “Brother and Sister, I don't claim to know^ as 
much about music as some people and tonight it seems 
that I know less than I thought I did. I heard of a 
negro musician that was raised down in Georgia that 
could play twe different tunes on a piano at the same 
time and sing a third, carrying three tunes at the same 
time, bub it seems to take all three of us to do that here 
tonight.” When they closed the musical entertainment 
Rastus presented the bible to Rev. Graphen, from 
which he read a chapter, and we all bowed in prayer, 
then w^e- all retired for the night. After breakfast in 
the morning the jireacher gave us a cordial invitation 
to visit his family and said that he was a soliciting 
shii)ping agent for the Long Line Rail Road and had 
the right to grant free passes to any of his friends and 
would bo pleased to give us free passes at any time. 

Letta accepted the invitation and set a time to 
make the visit. Rev. Graphen's home was at La 
Grange, Mo. The railroad passed through Hanibal 
and as I Jiad a brother living there, that I had not 
.seen in several years, I. told Letta that when she 
went on the free passes thaf l would be glad to go "as 
far as Haiiibal and visit my brother as he was cpiite low 
at that time with brain fever. She said that I could 


- 130 - 


iaot go if he was sick and that I should stay at home 
and work and that Mr. Graphen didn't mean that he 
would give me a free pass and that he only meant the 
family. I said to her, “You and Uncle Rastus promised 
to make me one of the family when you persuaded papa 
to let you have me.” “Don't you mention that again, 
you wretch you,” she said, “or I will break your head 
with this poker,” and drew over my head a heavy iron 
rod which we used for poking the fire. I was never 
one of the family except when there was work to be 
done and then I was the only member in the house in 
in the work line, for work is something she never 
would do. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


It was in the year 1881 when Letta claimed to have 
been warned by God in a dream that it was her duty as 
a Christian to organize a Sunday school at the Sugar 
Creek Baptist church and she related that in a dream 
the spirits had impressed on her mind that she was 
committing a wicked sin in patronizing the Methodist 
Sunday school. Rastus vehemently opposed her or- 
ganizing a Baptist Sunday school saying he would not 
allow his horses used to take any of us to a blamed old 
Baptist Sunday school and that his child should not 


— 131 — 


attend a Baptist Sunday school as he would rather see 
him dead than have such an absurd doctrine instilled 
in his mind. They quarreled all the week over their 
difference of opinion on religion. When Sunday came 
Letta went to church in the morning and she talked 
with some of the most prominent members in regard 
to organizing a Sunday school at that place. When 
services were over the minister announced to the con- 
gregation that there would be a meeting at that place 
that afternoon at four o’clock for the purpose of organ- 
izing a Sunday school. When we met in the afternoon, 
the membership not being very large they did. not deem 
it policy to call it a Baptist school, but thought it 
would be better to have a union school. After the sub- 
ject was discussed by the members a union school was 
decided upon, and some of the teachers elected. At 
the same time Rastus was elected superintendent as a 
compliment to Letta. 

When Letta returned home she told Rastus of the 
honor conferred upon him. Rastus made many derog- 
ative expression in regard to their electing him super- 
intendent, but on the next Sunday however he lost no 
time in being on hand at the church to fill his office. 
At that meeting the question arose as to what hour the 
school should be held. All voted for four in the after- 
noon except Letta who wanted it at five in the after- 
noon. After some discussion it was decided to hold it 
at four, for it was thought that five o’clock w as too 
late for some of the parties to return home for evening 
chores. 

The next week was a week of abuse for me from 
Letta for not voting for it at five o’clock, as she did. 
When Sunday came Rastus went in time for four 
o’clock Sunday school but Letta would not go or let 
me go until five. When we got there teachers and 
pupils were leaving for home. So the following week 
was Rastus week of vent'of her vile tongue because be 
held the sphool at four, and did not honor her by wait- 


- 132 - 


ing till her hour at five. The next Sunday Rastus again 
held the school at four o’clock. As before Letta and 
myself went at five as on the previous Sunday and were 
just in time to see them leaving. After Rastus heard 
from her one more week, he decided that five o’clock 
would be as early an hour *as he could conveniently 
leave home. So when we all got to the church, all 
parties had decided from what they had heard from the 
headquarters, that the inspiration Letta had about or- 
ganizing a Sunday school, was a kind of home made 
fabrication, and they met no more. 

I kindly extend due credit to the intelligent teach- 
ers and pupils of that Sunday school for their correct 
opinion as to Letta’s fabrication about her spirit inspir- 
ation that she was called upon to organize a Sunday 
school. To ventilate a little of her religion I will re- 
late one incident. During the time she was so zealous- 
ly working up the Sunday school there was a gentle- 
man traveling with his family, and he upon seeing so 
many cows sent a small girl in to buy five cents worth 
of sweet milk from Letta. This gentleman wanted 
the milk for a sick baby he had and whose mother was 
dead. Letta ordered me to sell the child butter milk. 
The child told us that the baby was sick and could not 
drink buttermilk. Letta took the nickle and again 
stormed at me to give her buttermilk. The child being 
helpless took the buttermilk to her father wdio sent it 
back with a special prayer for the sick baby to have 
sweet milk. Letta finally let the child have a pint of 
sweet milk. But sw^eet milk was so cheap in that sec- 
tion that nobody ever thought of charging a traveler 
anything for it, and as to buttermilk it could not be 
sold at all. I will give one more instance in which she 
demonstrated the quality of her piety. At one time 
Letta’s mother made Letta’s sister a present of ahorse-. 
This made Letta angry because her mother had not 
given it to her and she said she was tempted to poison 
the water where the horse drank so as to kill him, 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


Rastus and Letta were the two most unreasonable' 
people I ever had any dealings with, and their tyrany 
is surpassed by none. These Christian j)eople had ten 
acres of land which they kept as a clover and timothy 
field and joining this was ten acres more which 
they kept for pasturing their stock. This track of 
land lay on the south side of their farm, the county 
road, which is known as the Louisiana and Frankford 
road, divided the farm. Their houses and other build- ■ 
ings stood on the north side of the road and from the 
time they, first got me in their clutches they imposed 
upon me the burden of driving their cattle and other 
stock that was being used on the farm, across the ten 
acre meadow of clover and timothy every morning and 
evening during the season they kept their stock in 
pasture. I was compelled to drive ten to twenty head 
of horses and cattle through this meadow in order to 
get them in the pasture and I always drove them as 
hurridly as I could without frightening them and 
causing them to scatter, and because I could not pre- 
vent the stock from bitting the grass ofi as they passed 
through the meadow, Letta would abuse me shame- 
fully. 

I wish there was a premium offered for the mean- 
est married couple on earth and it could be known by 
the judges exactly how mean each couple were that 
were brought before them. If I was allowed to present 
a pair of them I would be sure to present Letta and 
Rastus and I know they would carry off the prize. 
Letta and Rastus are both mean though I am bound to 
admit that Letta is the worst of the two, but between 
them there is nothing lacking in the line of meanness. 
Of the two Letta is the most adapt in planning mean- 


ness but I will put Rastus against the world as an apt 
scholar under her teachings. 


CHAPTER XXV; 


At one time Rastus was elected one of the board of 
school directors of the Grassy Creek school. During 
the term which he held the office the school burned 
down. The building was insured for more than it cost 
to rebuild it. Rastus immediately notified the Insur- 
ance company of the disaster and after they made a 
thorough investigation paid the amount of insurance. 
Rastus would not allow anyone to have the contract of 
rebuilding the house, but took it himself. I was in- 
formed by a party, who claimed to know that there 
was ‘forty dollars of the insurance money left after all 
costs were paid, which should have been put in the 
school treasury but Rastus gave no account of the resi- 
due of the money. 

I will relate another circumstances wffiere in Ras- 
tus made a demonstration of his integrity: A number 
of years ago there was a track of land which lay in 
the valley, between the Salt and Mississippi river. 
Several thousand of acres lay in this track of land and 
it was known as the Point. I suppose it got its name 
from the fact that it lay in a point between the two 
rivers, where Salt river emptied into the Missis- 
sippi. This track of land was fertile, but could not be 
cultivated on account of the overflow of the rivers. It 
]3roduced an abundance of different kinds of nuts and 
berries and very fine grass. There w^ere the hickory, 
walnut, pecans, acorns hack berries, Yorkenuts and all 
^kinds of haws. As this slope of land was not inclosed 


except by the two rivers on the east and West sides the 
public at large took advantage of the opportunity of 
using the range. Many farmers have accumulated 
great wealth by herding their stock on that land, while 
a great many men have been made paupers by the riv- 
ers rising unexpectedly and drowning all their stock, 
in which they had invested all their money. 

One season Rastus put some hogs on this ranges 
and there was a gentleman by the name of Cherries 
who also had hogs there. When the time came to 
gather their stock off the range Rastus built a pen and 
drove several head of hogs in it and left them there; 
Mr. Cherrie came along and left them outj but when 
Rastus found the hogs were out he pened them in* So 
when Mr. Cherrie found his hogs in the pen the second 
time he again turned them out and upon meeting Ras- 
tus a short distance from the pen asked him why he 
had put his (Cherrie’s) hogs in the pen. Rastus de- 
nied the charge saying he had penned no hogs except 
his own. Mr. Cherrie disputed his denial, saying, ‘‘you 
knew they were not yours, for you have no hogs of that 
blood in stock. Rastus declared he put them in the 
pen in good faith. Then Mr. Cherrie said, “now Ras- 
tus you are a d — n liar You knew well enough those 
hogs did not belong to you and you intended to steal 
my hogs.” 

Rastus thought it looked bad to be called a liar and 
thief and thought he would bluff Cherrie by striking at 
him, (both were on their horses.) Mr. Cherrie re- 
turned the blow and knocked Rastus off of his horse, 
and then jumped off from his own and they went into a 
real old fashioned fist fight and during the performance 
while Rastus was putting in all the fight he could 
muster up, and calling out, help, murder, come quick 
or it will be too late? Rastus’ father and some other 
men being a short distance away heard his appeals for 
help and they got on their horses and rode as rapidly 
^s possible to his assistance. When they arrived his 


— 186 — 


lather jumped off his horse and attem]3ted to part them 
at the same time exclaiming, '^Rastus! Rastus! Kastus! 
What in the world do you mean by fighting this way?** 
Rastus’ father seeing he could not part them called 
for more help. The other men quickly loaned their 
assistance and the ^Derformers were parted. The old 
man then said to Rastus, ‘T am actually ashamed of 
you. You have disgraced our family by fighting. It 
must be your fault for this is your third fight within 
the last three months. ” “He called me a d — n liar, 
and hog thief,” said Rastus. “Well you must not be a 
liar or a hog thief or you can get up fights on many 
occasions. Now you must quit such business as this. 
Besides your face being bruised, and your nose 
mashed, and all bloody, I ain’t here if he hasn’t bit one 
of your ears ofi, for it is gone.” 

When he got home his nose vras twice as large as 
natural size and his eyes were swollen shut; his face 
was almost like a piece of hamberger steak and he w^as 
blood from head to foot. Letta ha])pened to be in the 
front yard and on his appearance she said, “What is 
the matter with you?” “I have been in a fight,” he 
said. “Who with?” she asked. “With one of the 
Cherrie boys,” he replied. “What were you and him 
fighting about?” said Letta. “For putting hogs in a 
pen that he claimed,” said Rastus. “Which wdiipped?’* 
said Letta. ‘ ‘I admit that Cherrie whipped me, and 
besides he has bit one of my ears off,” said Rastus. 
“I suppose you kept the hogs?” she asked. “No he 
took them,” said Bastus. “Now I have a mind to kick 
you ofi of my premices for not bringing the hogs home 
with you. In the first place you might have known 
better than to put them in a pen and let any body find 
them. Now ain’t you a pretty thing to let him have 
the hogs and w^hip you in the bargain, and even brand 
you with his mark. I suppose when he gets hold of a 
hog when he has no knife, he bites the ear off?” Letta 
was so indignent on account of him getting whipped, 


—137— 

and losing the hogs too, that she would not speak a 
civil word to him for a month, but finally Rastus told 
her that he intended to sue Cherrie for damages, for 
mutilating him and put him in the penitentiary too. 
The thoughts of obtaining damages was the Svveetest 
music that had enlivened Letta’s ear for a long time 
and was a great consolation to her. Money was her 
daily theme, as she was always on the look out for 
money. She cared not from whence it came, except 
from labor by her own hands and labor was an abhor- 
rence if she thought there was any danger of its steer- 
ing ri her direction. 

Mr. Cherrie heard of Rastus threatening to sue 
him for damages and of prosecuting him for the peni- 
tentiary, The next time he met Rastus, he said, ‘T 
heard of your threats of suing me for damages, and of 
proposing suit to put me in the penitentiary. Now, 
Rastus, if I hear another word of this threat 
from you, I will give you my word that I will clip your 
other hog-stealing ear, before I send you to the peni- 
tentiary for hog stealing, so that your balanc e will be 
true on the hog stealing question.'* It is no use to say 
that Rastus said no more about the suit against Mr. 
Cherrie. Thereafter Rastus was the best judge of hogs 
in that whole country. He even knew the blood of 
every hog and even knew to whom each and every hog 
belong and especially the whole Cherrie generation's 
hogs were safe from Rastus's mistaking them for his. 
Rastus is an expert judge of hogs to this day in 1900, 
and if anybody does not believe this hog story just let 
tliem look for his absent ear, for he is now living in 
^Eureka Springs, Arkansas. 

CHAPTER XXVL 


If there is anything in phrenology, Letta has the 
bumps of cautioness much larger then Rastus. For 
after dealing in turkeys she still has two ears and the 


— 138 - 


price of six more turkeys than she is entitled too. In 
order that the reader may more thoroughly under- 
stand how she managed to succeed in escaping with 
both of her ears and the turkeys, I will explain how 
she worked the scheme. Letta kept every variety of 
turkey that she knew of, excepting the large gray tur- 
keys. No one in the community had any of these large 
gray turkeys except Letta’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Eead- 
en, and a Miss Jackson. One day Letta called on her 
mother-in-law and when the servant girl called the tur- 
keys to feed them, the old lady asked Letta to walk out 
with her and see what a nice flock of gray turkeys she 
had raised that season. When they got to the flock 
Letta remarked to her mother-in-law, that she admired 
her gray turkeys very much and expressed a great de- 
sire to get in a stock of them, but at the same tinie 
said that she was not able to buy, as she had no money. 
Her mother-in-law quickly i)erceived that Letta was 
scheming for a j)resent of a turkey so she said that she 
would give her a nice turkey. Letta accepted the 
turkey and took it home with her. Soon afterwards 
she bought one from Miss Jackson. ‘‘Now,” said Let- 
ta, ‘ ‘I have a good start in turkeys, I have the yellow , 
white, brown, bronze and gray, but I like the gray best 
of all.” She succeeded in keeping them over winter, 
but in the spring the cholera broke out among the tur- 
keys and one of the gray turkey hens got sick. I doc- 
tored it until I lost all hopes of its recovery and Letta 
told me I need not treat her any longer, as it was grow- 
ing worse and she said she knew it would die from the 
fact that she never saw one live after it got to the 
stage that that one did. After I quit treating the tur- 
key it disappeared and we never saw it again. 

About eighteen months later, one afternoon there 
was a large flock of turkeys came to Letta’s. I sup- 
posed there were about one hundred; it seemed that all 
the neighbors turkeys had gathered together and 
among the flock there was a large gray turkey with 


— 139 — 


nine young turkeys. When Letta discovered the gray 
turkeys she claimed them. She said she did not be- 
lieve her turkey hen had died, but had strayed off and 
set and raised nine young turkeys and had brought 
them home so she said she would drive them in the 
fowl house and keep them. She managed to get the 
old hen and five of the young" turkeys in the fowl house 
but the balance of them got away with the fiock. She 
said that she would sell the five young ones, for fear 
somebody would come and claim them. So the next 
day Rastus went to town so she caught the young tur- 
keys and put them in the wagon. Rastus did not know 
they were not Letta’s, in fact he knew nothing about 
how many or what kind of turkeys Letta had, and of 
course did not ask any questions about them. As she 
threatened me with violence if I ever told anyone 
about the turkeys so I said nothing about them. When 
she got them in the wagon, James Readen rode up, and 
when she saw him coming, she had some fears that he 
might recognize the turkeyS; so to conceal them she 
ran and threw an old piece of rag carpet over them. 1 
think the act of her throwing the carpet over them 
aroused James suspicion, though he said nothing about 
it to Letta. I believe he told his mother, for a few 
days later she came down to Letta's, and it was plan 
to be seen on her contenance that she suspicioned Let- 
ta of taking her turkeys. When Letta saw her com- 
ing she ran and turned the old turkey hen out of the 
coop. She said that she knew the old lady was com- 
ing to see about the turkeys but she would not find the 
old turkey hen in the coop. ‘^Now,'’ said Letta, ‘fif 
the old lady does ask anything about the turkeys, I 
will tell her that one of these gray turkey hens is the 
one she gave me and the other is the one I bought 
of Miss Jackson. As I am satisfied James has told her, 
I sold some, I will admit it to her, and tell her they 
were mine that I raised, and as she knows nothing 
about them having the cholera, I can make her believe 


140 ^-^ 


I am telling the truth, unless you give me away about 
it, and if you do that I will kill you. You must tell 
the same story that I do. I warn you again, if you 
tell on me woe wnll betide you,” 

By this time the old lady was at the door. I met 
her and invited her in. The old lady could not con- 
ceal her suspicion on her contenance, but was too pru- 
dent to accuse Letta with such a charge without suffi- 
cient evidence. She asked Letta if any of her gray 
turkeys had been there. Letta replied that she had 
not seen any of them there. Mrs. Readen then asked 
her if she hadn't sold any turkeys lately. Letta told 
her that she had sold five gray ones. The lady asked 
her how many turkeys she had left. Letta answered 
that she had two. After the old lady had questioned 
her as thoroughly as a Philadelphia lawyer would' his 
opponent, she rose up and w^alked out to the fowl house 
all alone and made a thorough search but found no 
turkeys there] so she decided to remain at Letta’s the 
balance of the day. When the turkeys came home to 
roost, she went and made the second search. The 
gray hen that Letta had kidnapped from the flock was 
there and the one she had owned two years. 

As Mrs, Readen did not find any gray turkeys ex- 
cept the two old hens that Letta claimed and having 
no proof she deemed it policy to keep quiet though she 
remarked that it did seem strange that Letta would 
sell the young turkeys before they were near grown, 
and just the number she had missed. But after taking 
in consideration that Letta was her daughter-in-law, 
and to make a charge against her meant disgrace to 
her family. She being a w^oman of high self respect 
thought she would rather lose the turkeys than expose 
any scandal in her family. So she W'Ont home and 
fearing she had suspicioned Letta wrongly she sent an 
apology to her asking her pardon for having made 
the search for the turkeys Letta granted her pardon 
with tears in her eyes, saying it did hurt l)er feelings 


when slie Went there and iinjuired ot iier aboUi the' 
turkeys in the way she did, for she said, '‘I felt like 
she thought I'd stolen them, but in the name of the 
Meek and Lowly Jesus I forgive her. “ 

This ended the turkey question and Mrs. Anna 
Eeaden is still in the dark as to wdiat became of them. 
The onl 3 hint Rastus ever had of it was since he and 
Letta moved to Eureka Springs. Letta disputed with 
me about a debt she ow(3d me, and I threw it up to her 
by sluring her, saying it was like the gray turkeys. 
She answered me by saying she did not want any in- 
sinuations, and ran off up stairs. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


After Rastus and Letta had swindled everybody hi 
the whole country that they ever had any dealings 
with, and they already had got to where nobody would 
trust them for one dollar, Letta suggested to Rastus 
that he aspire for the sheriff’s office. And said candid- 
ates were then offering themselves. ‘‘There is $4 000 
a year in that office,” said Letta, “and we had as well 
have the money as anybody.” “Well, what must I do 
to get elected?” Rastus asked. “Why, just tell eveiw- 
body you see that you want the office, and write to them 
you don’t see, and tell them you are old John Readen’s 
son, and your wife is a daughter of the late Rev. John 
Johnson, and when people hear that they will be sure 
to vote for you.” So Rastus immediately got his ]3en 
and ink and some letter paper and sat down and wrote 
several cards and addressed them to different parties, 
he wrote the cards like this: “lam running for sheriff, 
I want you to vote for me; I am John Readen’s son and 


you know he is a very popular man and a member of 
the Methodist church, and I am a Methodist too, my 
wife is a daughter of the late Rev. John Johnson, and 
he was a man of great note in the Baptist church, my 
wdfe is a Baptist too, now if you will vote for me and 
get all of your friends to vote for me, I will be much 
obliged to you, and be elected.'’ He then added 
that he was a democrat, and would submit himself to 
the democratic convention. After mailing those cards 
he and Letta talked the subject over and decided he 
would be more apt to obtain the greatest number of 
votes if he would aspire as a greenbacker, and run on 
the independent ticket. So he sat down and wrote 
more cards to the same parties, stating that he had 
changed his mind on politics, and turned to the green- 
backer ticket. Rastus then decided to ride around 
over the country and lect^oneer for himself. So the 
next day he saddled his best horse and started out. On 
leaving home Letta said to him: “Now, Rastus, you 
must not forget to tell everybody that you are a Method- 
ist and a son of John Readen and your wife is a 
daughter of the late Rev. John Johnson, and when they 
learn that a man is running for sheriff that married one 
of preacher Johnson’s girls, they will flock to you from 
all over the country and you will be elected by such a 
large majority that no man will think of running 
against you again, and after that you can get any office 
you want, not only in Pike County, but in the whole 
range of counties w^here father has been preaching for 
the last thirty or forty ye^rs, and after you serve one 
term as sheriff you can get to be senator of this con- 
gressional district, and go to congress in the place of 
that old Carroll, and leave that old rascal at home, and 
then we will get even with him for digging that spring 
on his land, and ruining ours, he knew the vein that 
supported our spring would be weakened by his digging 
a hole above ours, and we could not help ourselves nor 
dare to say a word as he dug on his own land, but 


— 148 — 

revenge is sweet and we will get it in tlie way of you 
being senator and leaving him out in the cold; and 
when you have been senator once you can get to be 
President of the World/' 

Rastus went according to Letta's bidding and when- 
ever he came in contact wdth anybody he related to 
them his great desire to be sheriff of Pike County, 
Missouri, never forgetting to tell that he was a 
Methodist and a son of the prominent John Readen, 
and his wife a Baptist and daughter of the Rev. John 
Johnson. 

Occasionally Rastus would meet parties who had 
enough respect for him to tell him he was fooling his 
time away as he stood no show to win in the race, but 
the bump for self conceit was too ])rominent to let any 
advice sway him, but on the other hand fell out with 
his friends. Whenever any of them attempted to 
advise him to withdraw, and on one occasion he got so 
angry that he threatened to kick one of his friends out 
of the county, his friend realizing that Rastus was only 
an insignificant piece of humanity, answered him in a 
gentlemanly way, that when he began the kicking he 
would be on hand, and that he would do better to go 
home and attend to his farm. 

When he returned home he told Letta how some of 
them advised him to go home and attend to his farm, 
and how he threatened to kick them. Letta praised 
him for his bravery and said the only thing she blamed 
him for was for not kicking every one of them that 
gave him such advise, and advised him to let nothing 
daunt his courage, as he had nothing to fear, and was 
sure to win. 

Rastus being a Methodist, had often heard the 
quaint old story, be sure and make your calling and 
election sure, notwithstanding Letta had answered him 
that his sheriff* election would be sure, he had enough 
sense to know that if he was elected at all he would 
have to be elected by the votes of the people and not 


by pr(^scntimcnts. And thought it best io make 

some efforts on his part, so he hired Joe Bradley under 
promise that he would pay him $50 to go all over the 
county and lectioneer for him. 

Joe Bradley canvassed the county as he hired to 
do and returned saying that every man in the county 
wdth the exceptions of a very few had promised to 
support him with their vote. The day before election 
Rastus and Joe Bradley went to Louisiana to do all 
they could for his election, which was as he thought to 
come up the next day. 

I will here give the reader a symbol of Letta’s 
intelligence. She ordered me to wash and iron a suit 
of clothes for Rastus to wear to Louisiana to lectioneer 
in. I washed it the evening before as she ordered. 
The suit being of very heavy goods did not dry suf- 
ficiently to iron, so she told me to heat the irons very 
hot and iron the suit till it was dry. I heat the irons 
and did the best I could toward ironing it, but could 
not dry it by ironing it. 

When Letta saw the suit was not dry she blamed 
me for it, and stood nearby the table; ^vhilelAvas trying 
to iron, and said ' ‘Iron faster, it is time for Rastus to 
start, he will have to be there early, so as to lectioneer 
for himself. I want you to hurry up or he will get 
beat, and if he does it will be your fault, and if you 
loaf around here and keep him waiting here for his 
suit instead of getting to town in time to lectioneer 
and cause him to get beat, it won't be safe for you, you 
wench you.” 

Finally Rastus called to know if his suit was ready. 
Letta answered him saying “No, it is not dry, you will 
have to go without it, for if you don't hurry and get 
there you will get beat. Get on your horse and ride 
fast, so when you get there you will have time to see 
and talk to everybody. ” ' 

Rastus and Joe Bradley started on to town and 
never returned till late that night. When Rastus came 


— 145 - 

home Letta asked him what the prospects were for the 
next day, ‘‘Just the best in the world,” said Rastus, 
“Everybody in town is going to vote for me.” “I knew 
it, I. knew it,” said Letta. “The spirits told me so, 
and they never lie. Now you see how sure you are 
going.-to be elected, live thousand people are going to 
vote for you to-morrow, live thousand in one place.” 
“No,” said Rastus; “There will not be that many votes 
cast there, for more than half of the population of 
Louisiana are women and children, but all that do vote, 
will vote for me. ” “Oh, well,” said Letta, “You will 
be elected any way.” 

Next morning Rastus got up early in order to get 
an early start, so as to get to the polls in time to get 
elected. Letta said to him : “Now Rastus you must 
wear your wedding suit to-day, and you will be the 
finest dressed man there, and that will cause lots of 
men to vote for you.” She then said to me, “Hurry 
up now, and get breakfast ready, so Rastus can get to 
town in time to get elected; hurry up now, if you make 
breakfast late, and cause him to get beat, it woirt be 
good for you.” I got breakfast while she got out and 
brushed Rastus’ wedding suit. Rastus had not worn 
his wedding suit since his marriage and it was entirely 
out of style, as his wedding suit was black cloth, made 
with very wide bloomer style legs, and the coat was 
made frock style, which almost touched his heels, 
his hat was a high stove pipe, but at the time of- the 
election men were wearing their pants very tight fit- 
ting, with short coats and low rim hats. As Rastus 
left the house Letta entreated him to hurry-on fast 
and to say as be walked away from the house, about 
like fiJuall boy would walk when his mother puts his 
first red striped knee pants on; and flapped his pants 
legs with his long narrow coat tail fluttering in the 
Avind, Avith. his stove pipe silk laat on, he seemed to be 
as proud as a dressed-up monkey. Rastus is a^small 
man and to say that he looked funny, ridiculous and 


—146- 


comical when he got to town, that his neighbors were 
ashamed to be seen talking with him. In regard to 
what Letta said to him that he would be the finest 
dressed man at the election, I guess if the original cost 
of the goods counted for anything Rastus had on at 
least $100 worth of goods and if fashion and cut of 
goods counted in tailoring, he had on a wider and 
longer cut than any man there. The man at the polls 
said he looked like a six or seven year old boy in the 
absence of his parents, dressed up in his father’s 
clothes* play ing papa among his elder brothers and 
sisters as he pranced around in the broadcloth suit of 
the second greatest event of his life: his birth being 
his first and the second being when he stood up before 
a preacher by the side of Letta to marry the $2,500 and 
few horses and cows that she owned. 

There were five thousand votes cast that day and 
out of the five thousand Rastus got twenty votes which 
left his opponent, Swen Gian 4,980 votes. I have 
often wondered what those twenty votes thought of 
him when they saw him come marching up with his 
$100 wedding suit on, of bloomer cut pants and sharp 
tail coat of fifteen or twenty years past, while they 
were dressed in tight pants and short coats of modern 
style. They may have wished they had been thought- 
ful enough to have saved their wedding suits to wear 
on election days. Well, in those days at election 
they were accustomed to counting the votes as they 
were cast and as Rastus so seldom heard his name 
being called as being voted for and his opj)onents name 
being called almost every time, he stood off and looked 
amazed and finally said to some of tlie men that had 
promised to vote for him, but on the sly had voted for 
his opponent, ‘There must be something wrong, for 
they call Mr. Gian's name nearly every time, why I 
thought everybody w^ould vote for me. ” They answered 
him that they guessed the other man was generally 
supposed to be the most suitable. When the returns 


were all in the Judges counted the votes and called out 
Rastus Readen, 20 votes; 8wen Gian elected sheriff of 
Pike County, Missouri. 

When Rastus heard that all his. hopes vanished, 
he got on his horse and started home. When he 
reached home he got oft* his horse and ordered Joe to 
take it to the barn. Rastus walked slowly to the house 
and, on opening the door he said in a sad and low 
spirited tone, ‘‘Letta, lam beat!” Letta who had retired 
early, feeling perfectly confident that she was the wife 
of the sheriff of Pike County had fell into a deep 
slumber. On hearing Rastus speak in such piteous 
tones she roused up and said, ‘‘O, you’r joking ain’t 
you?” !‘No, I am beat and beat bad,” said he. ^‘Hpw 
in this world did it happen. I am surjDrised to hear 
that you are beat. I was so sure you w^as elected that 
I went to sleep with my mind perfectly at ease, but 
how many votes did you get?” only got twenty,” 
said Rastus. ‘‘Only twenty, and nearly every body in 
the connty our relations. You surely didn’t get to the 
poles early enough to electioneer for yourself,” said 
Letta. “Yes I did but the men wouldn’t hardly talk 
to me.” 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


After Letta had made every effort in her power to 
prevent me from marrying, she dicided that her efforts 
were in vain. She said to Adie Bradley, “I think Lou 
will marry before long, and you shall take her 
place when she is gone. 1 don’t intend to allow you as 
much liberty as I have Lou. I shall tighten the reins 
xon you a great deal closer than I have on her. Your 


- 148 - 


old drunken daddy will never be able to protect you, 
so I expect to make you toe the mark. You shall cook 
wash, iron, milk, churn and sweep the yard and do 
everything else that needs to be done. I have given 
Lou too much freedom, otherwise she would not have 
had a chance to get married.” Adie listened to her 
several minutes and then said, ‘‘Now look here aunt 
Letta you have been threatening the vengeance of 
your tyrant iron will upon me, and have been telling 
me that it was mamma’s request that you should have 
the care of me after her death. Now I will inform you 
that papa has told me a dilferent story. He says that 
mamma did not want you to have the care of me or 
any of her children after her death, and she said be- 
fore she died that you deserved to be put in the peni- 
tentiary for the Tvay you have treated Lou. If papa is 
a drunkard he will never see me treated any worse 
then Lou has been Everybody knows you have not 
treated her right. I don’t intend to stay here any 
longer after papa gets a situation so he can help me.’' 
Letta stormed at her using all kinds of vile language 
toiler and Adie said, “You claim to be a Christian 
and claim to be guided by spirits, but you do not act 
much like one. Just look how you treat Lou and me 
calling us vile names without an^^ cause. We do all we 
can to try to please you, and you never speak a civil 
word to us. How you talked about Mrs. Dollman about 
those old rotten beans you sold her. Just think of it! 
A Christian calling her neighbor the filthy names you 
called her.” Letta then said that she had a right to 
call Helen Dollman vile names for not paying her the 
fifty cents she owed for the beans and she said she 
told Lou to do the washing that evening but she didn’t 
do it. At this Adie said that I was sick with a hot fev- 
er. “It doesn’t make any difference if she is sick," 
said Letta, “if siie was ii good girl slid would go and 
do the w^ashing anyway." “If you were a good woman 
you w^ould not want her to wash wdien she is sick,” 


said Adie. “Papa said you were a heartless liend and 
a tyrant. I am glad that papa is near at hand and I 
know I am free from your clutches and I defie you to 
treat me any worse than you have Lou. You have 
abused her until she hasn’t the courage to defend her- 
self. She is grown and yet she takes all kinds of abuse 
from you and never gives you a saucy words. You 
told papa that you wanted to get me so you could edu- 
cate me. He said you wanted to educate me like you 
did Lou and everybody knows how you educated her. 
You never sent her to school three months in all and 
when you did let her go, ydu made her go without 
books.” 

‘‘Now you are angry, ’'said Adie “because you think 
Lou is going to get married. Well it is the custom of 
this country for men and women to marry. Even wom- 
en who have good and pleasant homes marry, and I 
don’t think anybody will blame her tor marrying, and 
getting away from you. She has worse than no home 
at all here. Letta stormed at her again saying, “I 
feel like killing you. Don’t you let me hear another 
word from you. If Lou does marry I hope she may be 
cursed with fifteen chuckle-headed children and she 
and all her children to starve to death.” “This is 
Christ-like, ” said Adie, “a Christian lady wishing for 
her own flesh and blood to starye to death.” 

This occured about a week before I was married, 
and as I had made no purchases for the occassion, and 
knowung Letta and Rastus would not buy anything for 
me, I decided to collect some money on a note that one 
of my uncles owed me. The next Saturday evening I 
told Rartus I would like to go to my uncle’s the next 
morning. I did not tell him my object in wanting to 
go, in fact I had not told anybody that I intended to 
marry. Rastus emphatically told me that I could not 
have any of his horses to ride to my uncle’s and farth- 
er said that if I went I might walk, as far as he was 
concerned. I said nothing more to him, as I knew to 


answer anything he said would cause more vituper- 
ation from him. But when Mr. Dickerson called that 
evening, I apprised him of the fact that Rastus had re- 
fused to let me have the use of a horse, but he consoled 
me by telling me that he would hire one for me. In 
this instance I felt that I had the protection of my in- 
tended husband. 

The next morning Mr. Dickerson came on horse- 
back and brought a horse for me to ride. This being 
Sunday morning Letta had gone to the Baptist church, 
and Rastus was getting ready to go to the Methodist 
church. And when Rastus saw the horse at the gate 
with the side-saddle on, he did not want his neighbors 
to know that after I had worked for him twelve years, 
under his, and Letta’s most vile abuse until they had 
entirely destroyed my health, that he was too mean to 
me not to allow me to haveDa horse to ride to my 
uncles, he said, ^‘Lou, I suppose that horse out there 
with theGside saddle on is for you to ride.'’ ‘‘Now Lou" 
he said, “don’t you know that there is a horse here for 
you to drive whenever you want one." I answered him 
by saying that he had told me yesterday that I coukVnot 
have one and that if I wanted to go anywhere I should 
walk. He then said, “what will Tom and Ann think? 
Since you have been here twelve years, and now can’t 
get a horse from me to ride a few miles to your uncle’s. 
I suppose they will say poor Lou, she has worked so 
long for Rastus and Letta and now can’t get a horse to 
ride that short distance. What will your uncle James 
think when he sees you riding up there on a horse that 
he knows is not mine. Now you have done this to get 
me talked about." He continued to abuse me until I 
went with Mr. Dickerson out to mount our horses. 

Heretofore the tyrants had made it a rule that on 
going to church on Sundays I had to remain behind 
them and lock the house. This was to keep me out of 
the way of the young people that would like to have 
been my associates. And on this occasion after Ras- 


■15l— 


tus had vented his spleen of abuse upon ine until he 
saw me mounting to leave, he was not done dressing, 
but stepped to the door and viciously stormed at me, to 
know why I was leaving without locking the house. 
As I knew I would soon be free from his and Letta’s 
abuses, I ventured to ask him if he wanted me to lock 
him up in the house, upon which he again stormed at 
me saying that it was my business to wait and lock 
the house after he left. To this I made no reply. 

I am sorry to have to give him and his (not better 
but) worse half credit for being unequaled in fore- 
thought in jjlanning in low down unprincipaled mean- 
ness, but in this instance his forethought was so short 
that he could not think of the fact that I was going to 
my uncles to spend the day while they were going to 
church and would return for their dinner and if I had 
left last I should have lock the house and carried the 
keys, then they would be locked out after they return- 
ed after preaching 

Mr. Dickerson and myself arrived back at Rastus, 
and Mr. Dickerson left while I went in the house. Let- 
ta and Rastus would have killed me if they had not 
been afraid of the law. And as the law stood in their 
way they tried with all the power they could muster 
of their own, and all they could borrow from their 
nearest relation, the chief of the lower regions, to 
abuse me to death with their tongues. I did not tell 
either of them of my intentions but they suspicioned 
from my movements that I would marry some time 
that week, so they wanted to get every turn of work 
from me that they possibly could while I was there, 
for they knew they would never get another slave as 
I had been. 

They burdened me with an extra amount of work 
the last three days I remained with them and on Mon- 
day Letta gathered the largest washing for me to do 
that I ever did in my life. Letta was not accustomed 
to gathering up the washing on wash days, in fact she 


— 152 — 

Wag not accustomed to doing anything except quai’ei- 
ling, but on this occasion as she thought I would not 
be with her another wash day, she searched all the 
bureau drawers and wardrobes, and got all such cloth- 
ing as had not been worn since they had been washed 
before. To give me a hard farewell she gathered all 
the fabrics of every kind such as fancy pillow slips and 
shams, bed spreads and quilts and all linen and many 
other articles of the kind. These were added to 
the ordinary weekly washing. The next day being 
Tuesday, besides imposing all the ironing on me after 
doing all the domestic work she ordered me to peal 
and can two dozen quart cans and preserve one and 
a half bushels of peaches. I worked from four o’clock 
in the morning until twelve o'clock that Tuesday night 
while they were sleeping. 

The next day was set for my wedding. Mr. Dick- 
erson called at the house late Tuesday afternoon, and 
inquired of me what hour I wanted to leave the next 
morning. I told him I would be ready by eight or 
nine o’clock. Letta overheard us talking and as quick 
as he was gone she began to tounge-lash me again. 
Wednesday morning Rastus called me at four o’clock 
saying, “Get right up right now and get to work for 
you have to worm the cabbages today. ” When break- 
fast was ready and all of us seated at the table, he gave 
a long routine of work that 1 should do that, and say- 
ing that I had better have it done by evening or he 
would make me sorry. When breakfast was over I 
done up the mornings work as usual and dressed for 
my departure. 

I did not ask them for the privilege to marry at 
their house for three reasons, first, I did not want to, 
second, I bad too much contempt for them to let them 
see me marry, third, that I heard Letta tell Addie that 
I should not prepare a mouthful of anything to eat for 
the minister, Mr. Dickerson or myself and that she 
would see that we ate none of her grub, as she called 


— 153 — 


it. It was half past eight when Mr. Dickerson arrived. 
I had barely got through dressing when he arrived, 
and thus my agonizing, cruel slavery days were ended. 
When Mr. Dickerson arrived I did not wait for him to 
come to the house as I knew he would not be welcome 
and I felt that I was welcome only to work, sol walked 
out and down the path that led to the gate without a 
parting word to Letta or Rastus. 

About a week after I was married I met Adie in 
the road as she was going on an errand for Letta, and 
she told me the day I left Letta said to her, “Now 
Adie if any body asks you how we get along without 
Lou, you must say “Oh, we don't miss her, for • Aunt 
Letta done all the work any way. ” ‘^‘Why that would 
be telling a lie and I don’t tell lies, and every body 
around here knows that Lou did all the hard work 
while shs was here. ” * At this she said Letta became 
very angry with her and threatened to kick her for 
speaking in my favor. But she „ was, not afraid of 
Letta’s carrying out her threat as long as her papa 
lived near, for he would protect her if Letta resorted 
to violence. She said, ‘‘Lou I am glad for your sake 
that you are free from those fiends, and how I do re- 
gret that papa allowed Aunt Letta to have me, even 
for a short while and I do think that Letta is an old 
devil, but I guess I will have to do the best I can until 
papa gets in better circumstances.'’ Several weeks 
later I went to Lettas to get my clothes and it being 
nearly night when I reached there, I was compelled to 
remain over night so as to get my clothes together. 
Adie was ironing when I got there and Tshe told me 
she had been working hard all day and was very tired, 
it was; after six o'clock when she linished the ironing, 
-nevertheless she had to get supper without any assist- 
ance, and- after supper wash the dishes and clean the 
kitohen and when she got - through Letta ordered her 
to churn. It was then nine o'clock at night, Adie beg- 
ged her, saying: '‘pii! Aunt Letta, do X)loase let me 


— 154 - 


postpone the churnin^^ until morning, I am so tired.” 
Letta became raving mad and hollered at Adie ‘‘Go 
and church, and don’t you never dare to offer to stop 
work any more as long as you can find something to 
do, you impudent little whelp you.” 

Adie never returned a word that time but went in 
the kitchen to church, I retired and left her churning. 
While I lived there I often had to do the same amount 
of churning, and know she must have churned till 
about twelve o’clock at night. She churned six gallons 
of cream, and the butter, to wash and put away the 
churn and crocks to clean and store away and at the 
same time she was yet but a child, and notwithstanding 
this child done so much work day after day, Letta was 
not satisfied. Said she intended to get Adie’s sister, 
Maudie, who was younger than Adie. That she was 
more industrious than Adie, and said she could get five 
times as much work out of Maudie than she could get 
out of Adie. And said she thought that she could find 
work to keep them both busy, as she could than make 
rag carpets to sell and profit by their labor. But 
Rastus told her she should not keep either of them, 
but should do the work herself, and that he had 
endured her laziness as long as he Intended to, 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


As stated, Letta offered Adie and Maudie's father 
free storage, and thereby got his household goods in 
.her clutches, and then cut their clothes bedding, etc. 
into, carpet rag's, and had. me put in the loom one hund- 
red warps for weaving the carpet rags so ill gotten, 
and I had wove about fifty yards of it when I married, 
the other fifty yards still being in the loom. Adie \vas 


, — 155 — 


too small to weave, but not too small for Letta to abuse 
for not being able to till the place at work that two 
grown girls ought to fill and weave the carpet besides. 
And industry on her part at such a high premium, and 
lazyness so predominent that several months later 
when I returned after some clothes I had left there, 
Letta tried to get me to stay and finish weaving the 
carpet, stating that Adie w^as no account and said 
if I would stay and weave it out for her she would 
board me free of charge during the time I was weaving. 
I answered her that I had not come to board, but to 
stay for only an hour or so until I could get my few 
clothes in shape so as to take them away. She said 
stay and rest while you weave it out, you will not have 
to do any of the cooking or milking, Adie can do that. 
I answered her that I would try to make my time more 
remunerative. I thought she ought to be satisfied with 
the twelve years hard work I had already done for her. 
She then said there wereabouttw(3nty barrels of apples 
to be gathered for the market and said she wanted a 
barrel of cider made, and if my husband and myself 
would come and gather the apples and sort them, and 
put them in barrels ready for market, and make a 
a barrel of cider for her she would give us one bushel 
of apples. I answered her that I did not want the 
apples as they were worth only ten cents per bushel 
and my husband was making three dollars per day 
working at his trade in the shoe shop, and it would 
take us two or three days to do the work she wanted 
us to do; and moreover the neighbors had already 
ofiered to give me all the apples I could make use of. 
She then apprised me of the fact that James Reaclen 
had deceived her by placing a mortgage on her farm 
before. he deeded it back to her. She then wanted me 
to agree to swear in. court that James had got the deed 
to the farm under false pretenses. She said Rastus 
had told her that James had put^the mortgage on the 
farm for the money Rastus and her Ow^ed him, so 


— 156 - 


Rastus is against me, and said as they owed James 
they had to let the mortgage stand for the debt they 
owed him, but she said if I would swear like she 
wanted me to, she would throw the mortgage off the 
farm, and let James pay the mortgage, and that she 
had found out that Rastus has been selling wheat 
without her knowledge and bought and drank whiskey, 
and if he didn’t quit it she would get a divorce from 
him and let him go his whiskey route and she would go 
her way. 

I listened to her speech in silence and then answered 
her that I could only lestify to what I really knew; I 
knew that she was no friend of mine, and only wanted 
to use me as a cats paw in order to accomplish her own 
purpose, and as I knew James was justified in placing 
the mortgage on the farm I thought it right that the 
farm stand good for the debt, and as she had so shame- 
fully abused me for wanting the fifty dollars Rastus 
had borrowed from me, I was only glad to know they 
would have to pay the mortgage on the farm, or let it 
be sold. I got my clothes and went home. Inasmuch 
as she had told me that Rastus should never pay me 
the fifty dollars they borrowed of me, and after she had 
determined to make false proof if she could to prevent 
paying money they borrowed of James, I decided to 
sue Rastus on the note I held against him. 

Letta had often told me that if I ever tried to make 
them pay the money they borrowed of me she would 
make me pay three dollars a week for all the time I 
Avas with them, and when shelearned that I had entered 
suit, she went to a lawyer and proposed to deny paying 
me by putting In a rebuttal of three dollars per week 
for twelve years that they held me under their tyranny 
and made me wor \^least . sixteen hours and often 
eighteen hours per aa> . Now .as there are fifty-two 
weeks in the year and $3 per week would Jmve been 
$156 per year and as I was their slave twglve years, 
her bill would have been $1,872 that she yJfpuld have 


taken out of me had it been in her power, for making 
a slave of me in the place of educating me as her and 
Rastus had promised to do in order to deceive my father 
to get me away from him. 

But the lawyer told her that she could not deny 
payment in that way, and if that was her defense she 
had better pay it without cost. Soon thereafter Adie 
and Maudie’s father went to Trinidad, Colorado, and 
left Maudie with one of Letta’s sisters who had a large 
family of her own and Letta saw her sister, Mrs. 
Prichet and got Maudie, As Rastus had forbidden her 
taking Maudie, Letta had Maudie in the house before 
he knew it. Rastus then told her that she should not 
keep either, and both of the girls, Adie and Maudie, 
told me that Rastus and Letta quarreled all the time, 
except while they were asleep, each threatening to 
kick the other olf the premises; Rastus threatening to 
kick Letta for not sending them’away and Letta threat- 
ening to kick Rastus for wmnting them sent away. Oh! 
think how melancholy those poor little motherless 
orphans’ hearts must have been when they reached the 
crisis where they were forced to realize their precarious 
condition, they knew their only welcome was on the 
part of Letta, and that was only for the sake of their 
service, for which they never received even a kind 
word from her, but on the other hand, she heaped all 
manner of abuse upon them by burdening them with 
hard and heavy labor, and when they had done all they 
could do, the only reward they received was to be 
called vile names for not having done more. 

It was they so keenly felt that their father was a 
a drunkard and their mother was dead. How sad their 
little hearts must have been on retiring at night. I 
think I hear their little piteous moans as they 
wept, till their pillows were saturated with tears. 
As Letta then had two niece slaves, she indulged her- 
self in laziness so much that she required them to 
dress her on arising in the morning and help her wash 


— 158 — 

and comb her hair. Language fails to express how 
disgusting Letta really made herself, but finally Rastus 
told her he had endured her as long as he intended to, 
unless she would send the girls away and do the work 
herself, which she refused to do. Rastus then told her 
he intended to have them placed in the county poor 
house, unless some of their relation give them a home, 
as he was determined to get rid of them, and make her 
do the work. She demurred, and told him that the 
girls should not be sent avray. 

While Rastus and Letta were quarreling about the 
children, James Johnson happened to be passing their 
house and heard the turmoil, and stopped to see what 
the trouble was about. 

Rastus looked out and saw James Johnson had 
stopped and went out and met him at the gate. On 
meeting each other, Mr. Johnson said to Rastus ‘‘What 
on earth is the caase of this trouble between you and 
Letta? I am perfectly astounded at both of you, I 
heard the wrangling when I was a half mile up the 
road, why it is an ignominy to our family.” “Well, I 
know it is,” said Rastus, “but I can’t help it, I have 
endured Letta’s laziness and meanness as long as I 
feel able to, and I don’t intend that she shall keep Adie 
and Maudie here to serve her, I will petition to the 
county court to have them put in the pauper’s home if 
some of their relatives don’t take them off my hands, 
and if Letta don’t conduct herself better you will have 
have to take her and take care of her, as you are the 
only brother she has that is able to support her.” “No,” 
said Mr. Johnson, “You married her for her money 
and you must maintain her or she will have to support 
herself. But, I will take Adie and Maudie to my house 
till I can get a home for them; I will never allow them 
to be sent to the poor house if I have to support them 
myself; but I can’t come for them this week, I wish you 
would let them remain at your house a few days longer, 
and I will either come or send and get them.” 


— 159 — 


^'No,” said Rastus, ‘‘They shall not slieltei" liei^d 
another day, I will send them to you in the morning/’ 
“Very well,” said Mr. Johnson, “Send them anytime 
it suits you. Good-day.” 

Rastus then turned to the children and said, “Now 
you heard what your Uncle James said, and you must 
get your clothes together and be ready to leave early 
in the morning. ” Letta forbid them gathering theii* 
clothes, saying that she was boss and they must obey 
her order and pay no attention to anything Rastus 
said. Rastus again ordered them to get their clothes 
packed and told Letta he would split a board oVer her 
head if she interfered with them. The poor little 
orphans soon got their little faded ragged clothes 
together, and Letta beckoned to them to go with her 
and they followed her out in the back yard and when 
she got far enough away that she thought Rastus 
could not hear she said. “Now Addie and Maudie, 
listen to my warning for your lives de]pend on iU 
Your mothers spirit appeared to me and told me that 
she did not want either of you to leave here, and told 
me to takb a sharp knife and cut both of your throats 
from one ear to the other, and if you attempt to leave. 
I’ll do it no matter what Rastus says you must not go.” 

The poer little orj)han girls told me that they 
were so frightened that they didn’t go to bed that 
night and kept their lamp burning. No human tongue 
could express the feelings of those little orphan girls 
as they whispered to each other saying, “I wonder 
which one of us she will kill first. It is such a terrible 
death to have your throat cut from ear to ear.” They 
told me that every little noise they heard they thought 
it was Letta coming to cut their throats. But after 
thej had watched for her till past the middle of the 
night and she had not come yet, they made up their 
minds that she had gone to sleep and forgot to cut 
their throats. Thus they talked all night until dawn 
of day and then their hopes for escaping alive cherrish* 


ed them. When it was daylight they decided they had 
better come out of the bed room, as Letta would have 
a better chance at them while they were in a small 
bed room, so they first very quietly opened the door 
and peeked out to see if Letta was near and as they 
did not see her they came out and waited in the yard 
until the balance of the family were up. 

It being Sunday morning Letta called on Rastus 
to hold family prayers. He refused and told her that 
she was the.most infernal hypocrite the devil had ever 
placed on earth and that he would not pray to please 
her.r When she saw that Rastus would not lead in 
prayer she said to him, “Well if you wont pray, I will.'’ 
She went through with a farce of a ])rayer herself and 
when at breakfast slie went through a form of return- 
ing thanks for the rich blessings the Lord had daily 
bestowed upon her. She never said one word to the 
Lord about trying to atone for the wrong she had 
perpetrated upon her dead sisters orphan children by 
trying to force them to succumb to her wishes by 
scaring them nearly to death by threatening to cut 
their throats. When breakfast was over Rastus asked 
Adie and Maudie if they had their clothes packed 
ready to go. They said that they had. He then told 
his John to hitch up and take these little niece slaves 
up to your Uncle James. Letta said, “John I forbid 
you obeying your father’s orders.” “John did you 
hear me, go this moment and obey my orders, said 
Rastus. John went to get the rig ready . and Letta 
told Maudie to come to the kitchen. Letta then said 
to her, “Maudie you are my favorite girl and I want 
you to stay and I want you to go and beg Uncle Rastus 
to let you stay, and if you will I wfill buy you five cents 
worth of candy the next time I go to town. ” Maudie 
told me she did not want Rastus to let her stay, but as 
she was in the kitchen and there were so many bright 
knives lying around and she was afraid to refuse for 
fear Letta might cut her throat before she w^ould be 


— 161 — 


able to call for help, so she went and asked him if she 
might stay, upon which he yelled 'Out N-o-o so loud 
that it almost stunned her, and he again called to John 
to hurry up and take these little servants up to your 
Uncle James. Rastus then said to Letta, ‘Un the 
future I want you to remember that I am wearing the 
breeches, and my orders must be obeyed.*' Letta then 
said to him, “You had better let Maudie stay to do the 
cooking and washing.” “No, you shall do the work 
yourself and I intend that you shall sweat some of the 
devil out of you.” John drove uj) to the gate with the 
buggy and the two little girls got in and drove away. 

A few days later Mr. Johnson was passing Letta‘s 
house and decided to stop and see if peace had been 
restored. He found Letta at the wash tub crying. 
Walking up to her he asked her what she was crying 
about. “Why I ha-have to cook, boo hoo, and w-wash, 
boo-hoo-hoo.” “Oh, that’s nothing, all the farmers 
wives wash and cook and my wife is proud that she 
can do it and I think she loves to put a lot of nice clean 
clothes out to dry that she washed herself and as for 
cooking, I know she is proud of being able to cook 
such nice meals. So if that is all you are grieving 
about, something that you ought to be proud of. 
Rastus is a poor man and will get poorer, instead of 
richer^ if you don’t take hold with a will and help him. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


Some two or three months after I married my hus- 
band and myself moved to Frankford, Missouri. Wdiile 
there one evening I was reading the Louisiana Journal 
and in looking over the advertisements, I saw Letta's 
farm was to b^ sold upder sheriffs sale to satisfy the 


— 162 — 

mortgage. A few days later Letta called at my house 
and my husband and myself were there, but she re- 
mained but a few minutes and never made any kind of 
business known. I suppose she came hoping to see us 
on the point of starvation as she wished us all kinds of 
evil. She had not been gone more than half an hour 
when Mrs. Draper came in and asked me what it was 
that Letta and I knew concerning James Readen that 
our sworn testimony would be sufficient to send him to 
the penitentiai'y, I replied that I knew nothing at all. 

am sure Letta told me that you knew something of 
him that would send him to the penitentiary and that 
her object in coming to see you was to talk it over with 
you.” I assured her that Letta said nothing to me in 
reference to James and again assured her I knew 
nothing against James that w^ould send him to prison. 

I wdll relate one instance that will demonstrate 
Letta’s popularity du-ring the time she was working 
with might and brains to end her single bliss, and up 
to the time she was eventuall^^ lucky enough to capture 
(in her estimation) the illustrious Rastus. During the 
time we lived in Prankford there was a party of young 
people, who lived in Prankford, took a little pleasure 
trip to Louisiana and in the crowd was a young lady 
that was curious to know who lived at each and every 
farm house. Mr. Jones seemed to know" wdio lived 
along in the different houses answ"erd her questions. 
Pinally while passing Letta's house she asked him who 
lived there. ‘‘Why old hell scratch.” ‘‘Old hell 
scratch!” exclaimed the young lady, “Who is that?" 
Why, before she married Rastus Readen she w"as old 
Letta Johnson and considered one of the meanest 
women in the W"hole country, and w^as (as the boy ex- 
pressed, when a gentleman asked him of his pigs, he 
said, “The cholera had killed tln^ee thirds of them and 
only left him tw^o.”) So she was three thirds crazy to 
marry and had only tw"o senses left and she concen- 
trated those tw^o on marrying. So she run after every 


—163— 


young Ilian in the whole country trying to get Uiarried 
and by telling every one that would notice her that she 
was heir to $2,500.00, and three head of horses, two 
cows, four sheep and three hogs. She kept up these 
proceedings untill she saw twenty-five summers roll 
by. But none of the young men seemed to care for 
her matrimony desires until she met Rastus, who was 
in his twentys and seemed to be in need of the $2, 500. 00 
in cash that she had on hand. 

Some time later we moved from Frankford to 
Hanibal where Mr. Dickerson had procured a position 
in a shoe store and soon after James Readen called to 
see us and told us that Rastus would not come to see 
us because he was angry at me because I sued him for 
$50 he had years before berrowed of me. Mr. Dicker- 
said he saw Rastus up town in a saloon taking a drink 
of whiskey and he didn't come in at the back door like 
he does at home, but as he was where he thought no 
body knew of his religious devotions like they do about 
Frankford, he walked boldly in at the front door and 
called for a drink of seven year old Kentucky Rye. 

My health was so injured by the cruelties that 
were imposed upon me by Letta and Rastus, that Dr. 
Allen advised Mr. Dickerson to take me to some health 
resort as a change of climate would be more beneficial 
to me than medical aid. We decided to go to Vichie 
Springs, Missouri, as he thought there was a good 
opening for a boot and shoe store and so we went to 
the famous Vichie Springs. I did not hear from Letta 
and Rastus for several years during which time we 
moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas. I was taking dinner 
at the Star Restaurant, and there was a very nice 
looking gentleman sitting opposite to me at the table, 
and another gentleman asked him if he lived at Eureka 
Springs, and he said that he did, and then he asked 
him if there was a good opening for a hotel, and he 
said that he thought there was and farther stated that 
if a man witli a little capital would open a first class 


164 - 


boarding house he would do well especially if he would 
manage it like a man there by the name of Readenwho 
runs a hotel by the name of Pede Mount, who never 
pays his bills except when he is sued. I listened to 
him and wondered if it was Rastus and when he got 
through speaking to the other party I asked him if he 
knew where Mr. Readen was formerly from. He said 
that he did not. I said to him, ^‘Pardon me for being 
so inquisitive, but I once knew a man by that name in 
Missouri, and I thought he migl:t be the same man.'’ 
‘^It may be the same man but this man has but one ear 
and has a wife by the name of Letta or Setta or some 
thing like that and a boy by the name of John. His 
wife is a rogue of a woman and don't allow him to pay 
his debts if she can help it and he beat a butcher out 
of one hundred and thirteen dollars. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


After Letta and Rastus through dishonesty lost 
their property and moved to Eureka Springs, Ark., 
and through the assistance of his father opened a 
boarding house on Spring street called the Pedemont, 
where the people knew nothing of their past schemes 
of beating their creditors. It was to be hoped that 
they would grind arms of their Missouri proceedings, 
and about face and forwaixl march in the straight and 
narrow path of justice and honesty. 

But not so, for they planned between themselves 
to put their house in Letta's name and Rastus buy all 
he could on credit from furniture dealers, merchants, 
meat markets and even of wood dealers and hired help 
down to tlie wash woman and i*un as long as they could 


Witholit paying for any thing-, and when called on for 
the money Rastiis would say, ‘‘I have no money today,” 
and continue their nefarious schemes in that way until 
Sued on the claims and then plead that Rastus con- 
tracted the debts and had nothing to pay with, Letta 
claiming the property under deed to her and many of 
their creditors not knowing anything about law rather 
lost their money than to go to court. 

I will here give the reader a few instances wherein 
he tried to bluff some parties out of money he owed 
them for labor done at their boarding house. There 
There was a Mrs. Young who did their washing and 
also did some washing for one of their gentlemen 
boarders, and when she delivered the man's washing 
Rastus informed her that the gentleman was not in, so 
she left his clothes thinking to call again for her pay 
which she did the next morning. Rastus again met 
her and told her the man was not in, the lady went 
home and returned in the afternoon, she found the 
gentleman in his room packing his trunk. When she 
entered the room he said to her ‘T will not have any 
more washing for you this week, I will leave on the 
first train, but I think I will return some time next 
year, and if you are here when I return I shall be 
pleased to have you do my washing again.” Mrs. 
Young was a little em harassed at his not tendering her 
the money he owed her, and finally said to him ‘T 
would be pleased to have the amount you owe me for 
the washing I did for you this week.” ‘"Why,” said he 
‘T gave it to Mr. Readen before you delivered my 
clothes. I told him I might be out when you came, 
and told him to pay you to save you another trip.” 
‘‘Why,” said the lady, “This is the third time I have 
been here for the money and Mr. Readen met me each 
time and referred me to you.” “Well,” said he “Walk 
down to the office with me, we will see Mr. Readen 
about it.” She went with him to the office and as they 
stepped inside the door they met Rastus coming out; 


Mrs. Young approached him saying ^‘Mr. Readen this 
gentleman tells me he left my money with you before 
I delivered his washing.*’ Rastus appeared dumb- 
founded, and without saying a word he put his hand in 
his pocket and got the money and handed it to her. 
She was then convinced that Rastus was dishonest and 
almost decided not to do any more washing for his 
house, but as she was a widow with tw^o little children 
depending upon her for support, she codcluded to 
take her chance of getting her pay, and try to do the 
washing again, so the next wxek she came to do the 
W'ashing. 

Rastus was already in debt to her $1.40 and to bluff 
her he w^ent out to the wash room and said to her, 
“What has become of the soap I bought last week to 
wash with?’' “Why, I don’t know,” she replied, “I 
have not had any soap except the one bar Mrs. Readen 
gave me last week to do last week’s washing.” “Now,” 
said he, ‘‘I bought twenty-five cents worth of soap last 
week, and it is all gone, now^’* said he ‘‘You are 
responsible for the soap, and I shall not pay you until 
you find it.*’ “Well,” said Mrs. Young. “If that is 
your game, I will not wash for you, and you must pay 
me the money you owe me, or I shall put it in the 
hands of an officer.” Rastus refused to pay her, and 
she stopped washing and w^ent home. Next morning 
she decided to give him another chance to pay her 
without cost and sent him a note stating that she 
would enforce the law if he did not send the money to 
her by the bearer of the note. Rastus treated her 
notice with silent contempt, and Mrs. Young gave the 
account to an officer to collect, and he advised him to 
pay her as it was such a small amount, the cost of a 
suit would amount to more than the account, so he paid 
her without further cost. 

In another instance Rastus hired a Miss Russel 
to cook for their boarding house and when she would 
call on him for money, he would put her off with the 


— 167 — 

promise of having the money for her In a week or so 
till she worked for him to the amount of $25 at which 
time she told him she was obliged to have some money. 
He again said he had no money. She told him she 
must have her money. He then flew in a passion and 
told her his wife owned everything and he would not 
pay her and threatened to beat her and started at her, 
upon which she had run down stairs to escape punish- 
ment in place of her money. Rastus had made it a 
habit of threatening weak women and people of small 
means to scare them from suing him. But Miss Russell 
was not to be bluffed out of her money so easily, and 
sued him and Letta and got her money. The Justice 
before whom she put the case called a jury and one of 
the jurymen told me he never heard anybody contradict 
themselves in so many lies as Rastus and Letta did in 
trying to beat that girl out of her wages. 

In another instance a Mrs. Watkins sent her small 
son to Rastus with an account of $2. 50. When the boy 
presented the bill he said his mother was without any- 
thing to eat. Rastus said to the boy haven’t got 
the money,” and the boy said ‘Sve haven’t got anything 
to eat.” Rastus said ^'Now boy, keep your shirt on, 
and go out of my house.” On another occasion there 
was a Mrs. Wilkerson who did the* washing for the 
house, and Rastus kept putting her off for her pay till 
there w^ere $4 due her, and one evening she went to 
Letta and asked her for her money. Letta told her 
there was not one cent of money on the place and 
therefore she could not pay her. “Well,” said Mrs. 
Wilkerson, “if 3 ou have no money here in the house 
you must go out of the hoase and get some for I must 
have my money. I have a mother and baby at home 
with nothing to eat.” “Well,” said Letta, “I can’t 
help that nor I can’t i^ay you for I have nothing to pay 
you with.” Mrs. Wilkerson then sat down and said, 
“Well, I intend to stay right here till you pay me.” 
“No,” said Letta, “You need not sit here for it will do 


you no ofood, besides we can’t have yoU here in our 
way.** Mrs. Wilkersori said “the sooner you pay me 
the sooner I will get out of your way.” When Lettasaw^ 
that Mrs. Wilkerson was determined to stay, she went 
to her room and locked the door, and one of the board- 
ers walked quie':ly to thedoorand watched her through 
the keyhole and saw her unlock a bureau drawer and 
took from it a large roll of money from which she took 
a five dollar bill and after carefully placing the balance 
back, she locked the drawer, came out of her rooTi and 
asked some of the boarders to give her change for the 
five dollar bill. She finally succeeded in getting the 
change and paid Mrs. Wilkerson her wash bill. After 
Mrs. Wilkerson left, Johny saidtoLetta, “Now, mama, 
you have made a big fool of yourself by paying her 
after telling her you had no money, now that shows 
how silly you are, why did you pay her after telling 
her there was not one cent of money here, and just to 
think all the boarders in the office heard you tell her 
you had no money, no w^ they all know you lied.” “Well” 
said Letta “I had to pay her for she sat down here and 
would not leave till she got her moneys and Kastus w^as 
not here to scare her away.” 

In another instance Letta hired little Henry Fair- 
field to work her garden and flowers. The boy, eleven 
years old, was very anxious to make money for him- 
self, so he worked five days in the garden and in the 
flower yard hoeing and pulling weeds, besides carrying 
a large amount of fertilized soil from a long distance, 
bringing a water bucket full at a time, till he made 
several large flower beds, and in order to hasten 
through with the job he hired another boy to help him 
and promised to pay him wdien Letta paid. When the 
job was done Henry said to Letta, “Well, Mrs. Readen, 
I have finished the work, now I want you to come and 
look at it and see how" you like it.” Letta went and 
looked at the garden and flower beds and pronounced 
it a good job and expressed herself as being well 


-- 169 -^ 

pleased. Little Henry then said “Well, 1 would like 
to have my wages,” and Letta handed a nickel to him. 
He refused to take it, saying “Why Mrs. Readen, do 
you expect to pay me for five days hard work with five 
cents? and I board myself,” “Well” said Letta, “You 
may take that or nothing for I will not pay you any 
more.” He then asked Rastus for his wages^ and Ras-^ 
tus stormed at him saying “I don’t owe you anything^ 
you leave here before I kick you off the place. 

I will now give my reader an idea how Letta 
treated her boarders; there was some people 
boarding with her at one time that were sick, 
and could not eat but very little of anything, and there 
was a boy came in her boarding house one day with 
some squirrels, the sick parties asked her to buy them 
and have them cooked for their supper, as they had no 
appetite for such diet as was commonly furnished; no, 
said Letta, I shall not buy any squirrels for boarders to 
eat, I expect my boarders to eat such as is set before 
them, and if any one of them want squirrel, they may 
pay for them themselves. Notwithstanding those peo- 
ple were insulted at her reply, they bought the squir* 
rels and to test Letta’s principle they made an agree- 
ment among themselves to have the squirrels cooked 
and when they came to the table offer the squirrels to 
her, and see if she was little enough in principle to 
partake and eat after refusing to buy; sure enough, 
when they came to the table some of them passed the 
dish of squirrels to Letta and as they expected she par- 
took fr(3ely, and when she had eaten the first supply 
•she called for the squirrels to be passed to her again, 
the boarders then left her and went to another board- 
iing house. After Letta and Rastus had been in. Eureka' 
Springs several years they hired a good woman tp cook 
for their boarding house, that they already owed $10 
borrowed money and when she worked for them to the 
amount of $ 35 , she called on Letta for the money; , (as 
Letta was throne that hired hej^-Lettar told'her^^ 


—170. 


Rastus. She called on him; he took a piece of paper 
and sat down and asked the woman a long routine of 
questions as to who owned that property and if she did 
not know that Letta owned that house, etc. She said 
‘‘Yes.’' Well then, said he, “You know I hired you,” 
he wrote down that. She said, “He hired her, she said 
Letta hired me. ” He said to her “Sign this paper.” 
She refused, and Letta rushed out of the next room 
and said “You are a base liar, I never hired you.” The 
woman told Rastus she knew him to be a thief, but she 
would sue her money out of him and Letta, and when 
Rastus saw he could not bluff the woman out of her 
wages, he told her if she would knock off nine dollars 
from the thirty -five he would pay her the balance, $26, 
and pay her the |10 that he had owed her so long that 
it was out of date. So the woman agreed to knock oft' 
nine dollars. Then Rastus said he did not have the 
money but would give her his note, and it in a few 
days. The woman thought she could do better with 
note. He gave his note for only $26 and he would not 
jiay it, and the woman sued on the note and added the 
claim of $10, and Letta and Rastus both swore all kinds 
of lies to beat the woman, out of paying the note and 
did swear her out of the $10 by it being barred by the 
statute, and both swore that the the original recent 
debt was only $26 and that the $10 account was not 
mentioned when the note was given. 

Tne above is only a few instances of their rascality, 
1 could name hundreds; I will name one more. One 
Miss Royce worked in their boarding house, and on 
calling for her money, and their refusing to pay, she 
went into the dining room andsjwead syrup over every- 
thing and left without, pay. 

Finally they could get no help and had to rent 
their dining room and kitchen to one Mrs. Blackferd. 
Rastus reserved the right to do the room renting,, col- 
lect for board and all, reserve $1 per' week and j)ay.the 
residue to Mrs. BlacMord. Letta "stole Mr, Blackford’s 


171 


pi’O vision to feed her chickens, purposely swept dirty 
water down on Mrs. Blackferd’s fresh washed table 
linens, when hung out to dry. Rastus kept all the 
money, and Mrs. Blackferd had to pay her ]3rovision 
bills out of her own pocket and quit. Rastus played 
the same game on several unsuspecting womer. until 
his trickery was thoroughly ventilated among his as- 
sistants. And when he was known to be dishonest by 
rich and poor throughout the town there was a change 
of presidents, and with the president from Republican 
to Democrat the post office in Eureka Springs, Ark., 
changes to Democrat. So Letta said to Rastus now, as 
the people of this city have agreed between the Demo- 
crats to hold a kind of independent Democratic election 
and the one that gets the largest vote ai3ply and be 
postmaster for four years. And said Letta, now Rastus 
you are as good a Democrat as anybody in Arkansas, 
and there is two or three thousand dollars a year in the 
post office, and as we have been here so long and known 
by everybody; and as you are a Methodist and I am a 
Baptist, and nearly all the people here are either 
Methodists or Baptists in Eureka, you will surely be 
elected, and with tw^o or three thousand dollars a year 
we will show these people that we are no sardines. 
Well, said Rastus, Letta, it is a bright idea you have 
sprung. Yes, said Letta, it is a sure thing, but to be 
doubly sure you write to Grover Cleveland, as he has 
just got to be president, and ask him to give you his 
schemes to get elected and you will doubly sure of 
being elected. So Rastus wrote to Mr. Cleveland that 
ne was aspiring for the post office in Eureka Springs, 
and that the Democrats agreed amongst themselves to 
allow the man receiving the majority of votes to apply 
for the office. He wrote Mr. Grover that events here 
made his election sure, but to make him doubly sure, 
he would thank him. (Mr. Cleveland) if he would 
send nim his best electioneering schemes. And he told 
Mr. Cleveland that h(3 knevv he was a good fechemor, 


172 


that was wh5f he wrote to him for instructions; 
he told Mr. Cleveland that he need not be afraid to 
let his electioneering schemes be known to him, that he 
was boim a black democrat and dyed in the wool and 
entreated Mr. Cleveland not to fear, but to forward 
his sure cuts immediately; and said Rastus, ‘‘on your 
next aspiration, Iwill plant my best foot forward and 
shove you into any office you want, just as I have done 
before, and by your helping me now into the postmast- 
ership, in the future we will be jolly good friends and 
after I get to be a postmaster one term I can be elected 
to any office I want, and my next move will be to as- 
j)ire to H. A. Censmore’s place in congress, and will 
serve you faithfully in your cabinet.'’ After waiting 
several days and not hearing from Mr. Cleveland, he 
again wrote to him saying that he had written to him 
for his best quirks and turns for working himself into 
office, and as the day of election was drawing near to 
please answer without delay. Your delay has already 
began to sour on my stomach, therefore forward it 
quick and don’t let it enter your head that because you 
are in the president’s chair you can stay there always 
without help from your friends, and remember that 
while you want to stay in the president’s chair, I want 
to get into the post office at Eureka Springs, so take 
warning and be a little accomodating. 

The election finally came off, and there were three 
candidates, Rastus. another man and a lady. Rastus 
ran all over the city and electioneered every voter to 
vote for him, while the other aspirants simply an- 
nounced themselves as prefering the office if the good 
people of Eureka Springs prefered them. When the 
votes were being counted out the gentleman and lady 
aspirants attended to their business, while Rastus was 
on hand eagerly listening with his one ear as .tlie votes 
were counted. Finally the judges called out. RastUS' 


Readen 2 votes; Mr. S 150 votes; Mrs. W 200 

Votes, and we announce Mrs.W the choice of the 

people of Eureka Springs for post mistress. 

Rastus went back to his Pedemount boarding 
house and said to Letta, ‘'The people in Eureka 
Springs are just as big liars as they are in Pike Co., 
for you heard half the people promise me right here in 
your hearing that they would vote for me and you 
know many of them were Bastists and Methodists, and 
now you can see what kind of religion they have got. 
I only got two votes and one of them was my own and 
tne other was Johnies. 

Time rolled swiftly on and Letta and Rastus were 
lucky to get some help and again started to keep 
boarders. One old gentleman, Mr. York, came to 
Eureka Springs to open a boot and shoe store and 
stoped at the Pedemount. Mr. York had never seen 
Letta until one day she happened to pass where he saw 
her from the office upon which he inquired of some of 
the boarders who that woman was. ‘ ‘Why that is our 
landladyj'’ responded one of the boarders. “Our land- 
lady/’ exclaimed Mr. York, “why she has the meanest 
face 1 ever saw and any body that has a mean a face as 
she has is bound to be mean, and I am going to board 
some where else.” “O don’t leave us,” said the board- 
eas. “Yes I will, you need nut entreat me to stay for 
I shall leave, for I know that under as mean a face as 
that, the old squab is chuck full of meanness. Why, 
I’ll dream about that face and figure for a month. I 
Wish I had never seen her. She cant possibly be a full 
blood human being. Ill bet she is half baboon, and I 
had fully as soon have a baboon fingering what I have 
to eat as to have her around it, so good day.” 

Soon after Mr. York had left she came in the office 
and got into an argument with her son John and one 
of the boarders about the fulfillment of the scripture. 
She said, “The floods and the grip were carrying the 
people away and it is a fulfilment of the scripture and 


. 174 ^^^ 


there are .fewer people in the world now than years 
ago/' John said, '‘Mother you are mistaken, there 
are more people in the U. S. than ever before. Just 
look at the people coming in the U. S. every day.'’ 
“Oh well, they are foreigners, Dutch, French and 
Irish, they are not the people the bible means,” said 
Letta. 

Letta and Rastus continued to beat every body 
they had any dealings with until they got so low dowui 
that they could not get anybody to rent their kitchen 
and dining room and they could not run the boarding 
house themselves as nobody would trust them for so 
much as a dozen eggs, so they decided to let the whole 
house to some one, so they advertised the house as 
being for rent upon which they had several applicants, 
but when they saw" Letta’s face they said they did not 
w"ant to try to run a house wdth such a face as that in 
it. But eventually one Mr. Eliat came and he like 
others did not want a house wdth such a face peeping 
around the corners. He said to Rastus, “If you will 
move that wife of yours entirely away from the house, 
I w"ill give yoh $500 per year, $450 cash and $50 before 
the end of the year.” “Its a bargain,” said Rastus. 

Rastus emigrated w"ith his beloved schemer to 
another part of the city and lived in rented rooms. 
During that time Rastus mother came and visited w"ith 
them and staid two w^eeks. Letta complained of her 
eating their provisions and said that was th^ cause of 
their being scarce of eatables the balance of the year. 
Letta w"as not willing to balance accounts with her 
mother-in-law and consider the cost of her board w"hile 
she visited three months with her mother-in-law. 
Letta even begged Mr. Eliat to let her and Rastus 
have one room in the boarding house to live in telling 
him that they were in such circumstances that they 
could not afford to pay the rent on the rooms they had 
rented and if her mother-in-law had not ate so much 
while she was with them they would not have been so 


liard Up. Mr. Eliat told her he was sorry to liear of 
them being in such circumstahces, but he could not let 
her have a room and he told her he had heard that 
they quarreled every night, because she put her feet 
on Eastu’s back and he would not let them have a 
room. ‘‘Well I will not put my cold feet on Rastu’s 
back if you will, let us only have just one room 
to live in till your time is up. No, said Mr. Eliat, I 
can't let you come in here while I have possession, for 
you have the name of slipping around and eavesdrop- 
ping at the keyholes and windows; therefore I shall not 
let you have a room here. Now^ ain't it come to a 
pretty j)ass, said Letta, that I can’t live in my own 
house. This is not yours right at the present time said 
Mr. Eliat, it is my home so long as I pay the rent on 
it, and you must remain away till I give possession. 
Mr. Eliat vvas at that time a widow^er, and as he found 
it a difficult task to manage a boarding house without a 
wife so he chose among the fair sex and took to him- 
self Mrs. Seashid to be his bride, and as he wished to 
go to Nebraska on his bridal tour and spend a few^ 
days of their honeymoon at the exhibition he sub- 
rented the Pedemount house to Mrs. Jentry and got 
married and took the trip, and when they returned 
Mrs. Eliate sold Mrs. Jentry a sideboard for which 
Mrs. Jentry paid Mrs. Eliate cash, and Mr. Eliate had 
paid Rastus the balance of the $500 for one year. Mr, 
Eliate moved to Joplin, Mo., while Mrs. Jentry con- 
tinued until the expiration of the twelve months that 
Mr. Eliate had paid Rastus for. And when Mrs. Jentry 
got ready to move from the Pedemount she called a job 
wagon to move her belongings and Rastus told the 
driver he should not move the sideboard, upon which 
the job wagon driver left the sideboard. Well, said 
Mrs. Jentry, I have often heard that you was a thief, 
Cherie’s bit one of your ears off for trying to steal his 
hogs, and now you think you will steal my sideboard, 
but you will lose the other ear before you get it. And 


—1 Te- 


as Mrs. Jentry's brother was in from the country^ with' 
his wagon near* by, Mrs. Jentry called to him to bring 
. his wagon there, which he did, and she told him that 
Rastus, who bore Cherie’s mark of but one ear, for try- 
ing to steal Cherie’s hogs, was trying to steal her side- 
board. She said, brother, here is a bill of sale showing 
that I bought it from Mrs. Elieta, I have shown it to 
Rastus. Well, said her brother, 111 put it in my wagon 
and carry it where you want it. Rastus played bluff, 
but her brother said to Rastus to stand out of the way 
while he had one ear. And when Rastus saw that bluff 
done no good he ran for an officer, but when he got 
back with the officer he was too late, and when the case 
went before the justice Rastus fell in the cost, and was 
wiser but no more improved in principle than in ears 
Then Rastus rented the dining room and kitchen to the 
woman that was there cooking for Mrs. Jentry. Well, 
Rastus, as on previous occasions, collected from the 
boarders, agreeing to keep one dollar per week for 
room rent, and turn the balance over to the cook 
woman, and when he owed the woman thirty odd dol- 
lars she called on him for her money to pay her grocery 
bills, but as money was so adhesive to Rastus' fingers 
he could not let it go, and as it was in the dining room 
and the woman felt pretry strong (as she was) she de- 
cided to remind Cherie called him to account on the 
hog question, and she succeeded in giving him a sound 
thrashing, but when the woman was on the south side 
he invariably kept his one ear facing north. And when 
the woman put him on the floor Rastus turned that ear 
of his on the lower side, when she let Rastus up he 
said it would take a better man than that woman was 
to get a bite at his ear. After she got through whip- 

E ing him she packed her trunk and left the house, and 
letta aud Rastus were forced to close the house, as a 
boarding house, from the fact that they could get 
ho person to take charge of the kitchen and dining 
rbom. Letta then tried to run the house as a rooming 


— 176 — 

house. She ^ot a sign painter to paint a sign for her, 
and she tacked it up on the front of the house near the 
front door: the sign read furnished rooms for rent, but 
this attempt proved to be futile, for she could not get 
onough roomers to make expenses as most of the people 
were made to feel daunted at the appearance of her 
face. I know several ladies who went to the Pedemont 
house for the purpose of renting rooms, but when they 
saw Letta’s face they became so awed by the mean ex- 
pression she wore on her face, that they would not 
room there, and several have told me that they went 
there to look at the rooms, and on telling Letta the 
rooms did not suit them, she said to them, “Now you 
had better take these rooms, for they are the best in 
town, and are good enough for you or any lady like you. 

Letta continues to make her own clothes after her 
own ancient designs: she claims that Paris, Prance, has 
never attained to her graceful and artistic tastes; she 
never goes without hoop skirts, whether the ladies in 
Paris wear them or not, she has a wig which she made 
after her design. The wig is made of sheep skin and 
colored with aniline dyes and ammonie, which makes it 
coal black. When Letta wears the black wooly wig, 
she imagines she is looked upon as having a very 
beautiful suite of black hair; she has a cheap gold- 
plated watch, such as can be bought for two dollars 
and fifty cents, and when she goes on the streets she 
pins the watch on the outside of her dress low down be- 
low her belt on the most conspicuous part of her large 
stomach. She wears gilt stripes on her jacket sleeves 
and collar; she thinks she is quite attractive on the 
streets, and she is ridiculously so. You would think of 
her like the little boy answex^ed the gentleman, when 
the gentlemen asked him what kind of a dog he had. 
“Why,’' said the boy, “he is thi’ee kinds of a dog 
mixed. *’ ' ‘Well, ” said the gentleman, “what are they?” 
Said the boy, “one is pug.” “Well,’' asked the gentle- 
man, “wdiat is the next’*' “Hoxuid.” said the boy, 


“Well, what next," asked the gentleman. “Why, just 
dog,'’ said the . So if you would see her on the 
streets you woeld think she was three kinds mixed, 
Chinaman, Baboon and just Baboon. 

Letta’s appearance on the street is in harmony with 
her opinion of the laboring people for she says the man 
or woman who labors for his or her living shouldn't be 
allowed to receive anything for their work except what 
they eat, and but very little of that. I have heard her 
say that when she w^as a little girl she would not s^ieak 
to anybody who labored for wages, except w^hen she 
was compelled to speak to them concerning work, and 
said she thought any kind of treatment was good 
enough for the looor, but since she is tasting poverty so 
sensitived, she is forced to knit lace and then beg peo- 
ple to buy of her, and complains greatly if anybody 
buys a few yards on credit and fails to pay the bill 
wdien due. It is then she heard to say I think it is 
awful mean in any body to have me knit lace for them 
and then not pay me for it. Yes, she is always able to 
see the right side wdien there is a few cents due her, 
but never sees it w^hen some one else is the proper 
benefactor. Letta jDrofesses to be a strong believer in 
the Scriptures but always ignored all passages such as 
where it says the “laborer is worthy his hire, and woe 
unto him that would have labor without w^ages, or let 
your light so shine that others seeing your good w^orks 
may be constrained to follow after you." There never 
was an anckhorism more true than the old axiom, “It 
is a long lane that has no turn,” and if there is such a 
thing as the Lord showing his wrath to people by send- 
ing curses on them for the wrong the commit toward 
their fellow^ man, he certainly will send some calamity 
on Letta and Rastus for the way they have treated 
widow's and orphans in their afflictions, not oni}^ the 
widow^s and their orphans but everybody else they ever 
had any dealings with. I am sorry to say I have lately 
heard that Mrs, Anne Readen has recently died. While 


I hope that her departure from this world is her eternal 
gain, I cannot help but wish she had lived to read the 
pages in this book that explains how Letta stole and 
sold her gray turkeys, and so sharply lied, and led her 
to believe she knew nothing about them. I have no 
doubt but Letta is glad the old lady has passed beyond 
the vale where she will not be able to read of the dis^ 
position she made of the six gray turkeys she (Letta) 
took from her flock. 

Letta and Rastus are still living in the Pedemont 
house, in Eureka Springs, at the mercy of their creditors 
who holds a mortgage on the house. Their darkest 
deeds have not yet been told, and is too obscene to be 
printed. 


[the end.] 


Synopsis of Chapters 


CHAPTER I. 

My first experience at church. My mothers death. 
CHAPTER II. 

The visit to our mother’s grave. Our career during 
the Spring and Summer. Our father’s second marriage. 

CHAPTER III. 

Grandmother warns stepmother to treat us kindly. 
The token of grandmothers death. Stepmother fears 
grandmother’s ghost might return. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Stepmother complains of too many children. Broth- 
ther complains of Santa Claus bringing babies to our 
home. 

CHAPTER V. 

Grandfathers death and will. Stepmother desires 
to break the will. 

CHAPTER VI. 

M3 oldest brother gets his leg broken. Stepmother 
rejoices. Stepmother attempts to shoot my brother. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Stepmother takes our presents from us. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Stepmother takes chances on meeting grandmothers 
gliosf-.. 


CHAP^SR IX. 

My first trip to Arkansas. Why my father sent me 
from home. My introduc:ion to my Aunt Letta. 

CHAPTER X. 

The books Letta sent me to school with. Rastus 
hurries everybody off to the Methodist meeting. 

CHAPTER XL 

The Methodist meeting attended. Mrs* Penicks 
converted to Baptist faith* How I was treated while 
sick. The puppy in prayer meeting* Rastus hides 
whiskey. Letta puts red pepper in whiskey. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Letta schemes to prevent me from getting an op- 
portunity to marry; 

CHAPTER XIII. 

James Readen's courtship and breach of promise and 
marriage. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Letta plays crazy. Cooking rotten meat. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The spirits prescribe a bill of fare. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Letta trades safty pins with Mrs. Howehin. Why 
John got scalded. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Letta denies that music written in round notes can 
be read. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Letta robs her dead sisters children of their clothing. 
Letta’s will. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Letta sold rotten beans to Mrs. Dollmon. 


GHAPTER XX. 

Rastus visits his relatives at Poplar Bluff. 
CHAPTER XXI. 

I was never allowed holidays. Letta claims there is 
no sense in grammar or geography. Letta learning to 
play the organ. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Letta's dream. Letta refuses to let a sick child have 
a pint of milk. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

I was abused because I could run faster than a three 
year old filly. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Rastus robs the school treasury. How he lost his ear 
CHAPTER XXV. 

Letta catching gray turkeys. 

CHAPTER XXVI, 

Rastus runs for sheriff. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Letta threatens Adie Bradly. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Letta threatens to cut Adie and Maudie Bradly -g 
throat. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Letta's reputation before marriage. 

. CHAPTER XXX. 

Letta and Rastus* mutual agreement in Eureka 
Springs. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Letta ""b style of dress in the year 1900. 


RECEIPTS. 

Combination Salad. —Slice six radislies as thin 
as a wafer, one small onion, a small stalk of celery, six 
cucumbers, one-half teacupful of vinegar, one teaspoon- 
ful of salt, a little pepper. Garnish small dishes with 
tender bits of lettuce, put a large spoonful of salad in 
the center of dish and serve. 

Celery Salad. — One bunch of celery, equal amount 
of cabbage chopped very fine, one tablespoonful of 
vinegar, one tab^espoonful of salad oil, one,-fonrth tea- 
spoonful salt, the same of pepper. Mix all. 

Tomato Salad.— Peel and slice four large tomatoes, 
chop one onion very fine, beat one egg very light, one 
teaspoonful vinegar, one teaspoonful sugar, juice of 
one lemon, one teaspoonful salt, a pinch of cayenne 
pepper. Mix thoroughly and pour over tomatoes. 

Boston Brown Bread.— S team one cupful sweet 
milk, one cupful of sour milk, one half cup molasses, 
one teaspoonful soda, one cup cornmeal, one cup white 
fiour, one cup Graham flour. Pour in quart cans and 
I)lace over hot water and steam until done, then place 
in oven and brown. 

Salt Eising Bread.— Take one pint fresh milk, let 
boil, while boiling stir in one-half pint eornmeal, keep 
warm over night, early in the morning beat thoroughly 
and add one quart luke warm water, tablespoonful salt, 
stir in all ingredients thoroughly and make a stifi bat- 
ter, place in a kettle of warm water, keep warm, when 
the yeast becomes light warm enough flour to make a 
dou^h very stiff, knead well. Make out in small loaves 
and set to raise. 

Light Rolls.— O ne quaart warm milk, one-fourth 
teacup butter, two tablespoonfuls sugar, one teaspoon- 
ful sugar, one teaspoonful salt, one cake yeast, two 
quarts flour, scald the butter and milk together, let 
cool, make a thin sponge, set to rise, when ready knead 
well, let rise again, then knead again. Roll out and 
cut in small cakes, let rise and bake. 


CocoANUT Cake. — One and one-half cup sugar} 
three-fourths cup butter, three cups sifted flour, one 
and a-half teaspoonfuls baking powder, whites of five 
eggs, one cup sweet milk, bake in layers, frost each 
layer and sprinkle cocoanut between. 

Silver Cake.— Three cups flour, one cup sweet 
milk, one and one-half cups sugar, two thirds cup but- 
ter, the whites of six eggs well beaten, two teaspoon- 
fuls baking powder. Flavor to taste 

Croup and Sore Throat. — Coal oil ipint, apple 
vinegar 1 quart, rosin 1 ounce, turpentine i pint, sugar 
8 ounces. Boil vinegar and sugar together, disolve 
rosin and turpentine together, then mix all together 
and take a teaspoon full three times a day. 

Brights Disease. — Boil navy beans in clean water. 
When done pour the water off and drink it. 

Sea Siclness. —Take ten drops of cloroform. 

LINIMENT FOR MAN OR BEAST. 

Alcohol and sweet oil 2 ounce each, aque amonia 
spirits of turpentine, oil of origanum, spike and gum 
camphor 1 ounce each, oil of pepper 1 ounce. Apply 
and rub briskly. 

LINIMENT FOR INFLAMATORY RHEUMATISM. 

Pulverized salt peter i ounce, sweet oil i pint. Apply 
externaly to the part afiected. 

BEE OR WASP STING. 

Scrape an onion and apply to the sting. 

LOCK JAW. 

Warm a little spirits of turpentine and pour into the 
mouth. 

CHILAINS AND FROST BITES. 

Take 2 ounces of hogs lard, heat it hot and pour on 
ice, when frozen remove from ice and apply to frost- 
bitten parts twice a day. 



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